Bystanders escape harm as NASA launch goes wrong

by Stevie Smith - Apr 30 2010, 12:57

The Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT), a gamma-ray instrument designed to scan the skies at wavelengths invisible to the human eye, became a potential death threat in Australia this week after the massive NASA balloon designed to carry the astronomy experiment broke free of its moorings.

Luckily no one was injured during the incident as the telescope and gondola slung beneath the 400-foot balloon shook free of the crane-equipped truck tasked with holding it securely in place.

However, a couple of bystanders eager to watch the launch were fortunate to escape injury – as the below footage captured by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) clearly shows.

According to launch officials at the secluded outback site near Alice Springs, sudden winds were likely responsible for the shock breakaway, which resulted in the runaway balloon dragging the gondola behind it along the ground for several hundred metres, smashing through any and all obstacles in its path.

Lucky escapees Stan and Betty Davis, who were watching from their car close to a soon-to-be-doomed sports utility vehicle (SUV), commented that they came “within about a foot of being wiped out,” by the rampaging gondola.

Had the launch been successful, the University of California's NCT experiment would have risen to a height of approximately 120,000 feet (around 23 miles) before gathering its telescopic data.

NASA has said it plans to convene a “mishap investigation board” to delve into the who, what and why of the incident.

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