<\/a>Start of the day <\/div>
BLAST on the dance floor, waiting in the fog for the launch<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Super-cool TIGER hat <\/div>
With sun glasses<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Laura comes outside <\/div>
To watch launch preparations<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Person for scale <\/div>
Serious scale<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Inflation underway <\/div>
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<\/a>Super-TIGER team <\/div>
With payload and balloon<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Super-TIGER team <\/div>
Without payload and balloon<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Time-lapse machine <\/div>
Tripod, phone, mitten, hand warmer, tape. Constructed by a scientist<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Scott <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>More inflation <\/div>
This takes a while<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Enzo poses <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Anne prepares to fly a piball <\/div>
"Pilot balloon"<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Piball released <\/div>
Done evey 30 minutes in preparation for launch<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Piball tracking <\/div>
Provides profile of wind vs altitude<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>The whole scene <\/div>
With BLAST in the middle, and spectators and launch operations on either side<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Barth <\/div>
With camera and Christmas decoration<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Tracks <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Peanut gallery <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Inflation finished <\/div>
Fill tubes dangling. Awaiting final confirmation to launch<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Balloon release <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Balloon mushroomification <\/div>
As it surges upwards after release<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Rising balloon <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Driving to directly under the balloon <\/div>
<\/div><\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>Directly under the balloon <\/div>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
<\/a>
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<\/a>![\"Tracks\"](\"http:\/\/farm9.staticflickr.com\/8057\/8262082657_6e8620b719_n.jpg\" "\\"Tracks\\"")
Monday was Super-TIGER’s first roll-out for a launch attempt. Somehow, Monday also managed to be their launch day. When the usual bus arrived at around 8:00, they had already been out for many hours. BLAST-Pol had been dropped of at the dance floor to make way for TIGER to exit our shared highbay. And TIGER was out on the launch pad with the flight train laid out and the balloon ready to open. But there was too much fog to see anything. Once the fog had cleared, inflation was well underway (though it takes a couple hours). Slowly, members of the BLAST-Pol, Super-TIGER, and EBEX teams trickled out to the spectator area. Launches are always exciting, if maybe a little too exciting when it’s your payload on the line. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6043"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6046,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions\/6046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}