<\/a>Waiting on the launch pad <\/div>
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<\/a>Jon sets up some timelapse cameras <\/div>
He has made several excellent videos<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The Boss and COSI <\/div>
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<\/a>The top of the balloon, fed through the spool <\/div>
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<\/a>Inspecting the bottom of the balloon <\/div>
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<\/a>Tow balloon inflation <\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>![This "small" balloon is needed to lift the top of the main balloon for inflation \u2022 <a style="font-size:0.8em;" href="http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/27717602@N03\/16137648522\/" target="_blank">View on Flickr<\/a>](https:\/\/farm8.static.flickr.com\/7498\/16137648522_e7693e35a7_m.jpg "This \\"small\\" balloon is needed to lift the top of the main balloon for inflation")
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<\/a>This "small" balloon is needed to lift the top of the main balloon for inflation <\/div>
COSI's special super-pressure balloon has a heavy valve plate on top<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Tow balloon release <\/div>
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<\/a>Cut away, launch scrubbed <\/div>
Due to a change in wind direction. Will try again another day<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Another day <\/div>
We head out as the dense fog clears, and inflation of the main balloon is well underway<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>The balloon <\/div>
And the tractor that's parked in our view<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Early morning SPIDER team <\/div>
Those that made it out before the roads were closed for the launch<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>Inflation complete. Tubes tied off <\/div>
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<\/a>Mt Erebus pokes out of the fog beside the balloon <\/div>
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<\/a>Ivan and the Balloon <\/div>
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<\/a>Awaiting launch <\/div>
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<\/a>Any time now <\/div>
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<\/a>Balloon release <\/div>
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<\/a>Rising <\/div>
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<\/a>Awesome balloon eclipse <\/div>
And giant shadow throughout the fog<\/div><\/div>
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<\/a>![\"Awesome](\"https:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7476\/15952304179_bb479765dd_n.jpg\")
COSI launched today, which means that SPIDER is coming up next. Unlike the usual zero-pressure balloons that are open at the bottom, they use a special pressurized balloon with a heavy valve plate on top to regulate pressure and avoid popping. This requires a smaller tow balloon to lift up the main balloon for inflation. A little over a week ago, they had a very unfortunate scrubbed launch after their fancy million-dollar balloon was out of the box and the tow balloon fully inflated. Due to extremely dense fog, that part of the process was invisible this morning, but the fog cleared up in time for us to see the launch. The lingering fog resulted in some spectacular light displays. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467"}],"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=6467"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6468,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6467\/revisions\/6468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/droppingballast.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}