SA balloon leaks, lands in Australia

Melbourne, April 29: SA’s heavy-lift balloon, which took off from Waka airport in New Zealand last month, has come down early over central Australia because of a suspected leak. The 4,000 kg ‘super pressure’ balloon, which is 90 metres in diameter, was meant to stay aloft 34 km above the earth’s surface for 100 days but its flight was ended, after just 32 days, earlier this week, SA has confirmed. “While we hoped for more days at float, we exceeded our pre-established minimum success criteria of 10 days by threefold in the balloon’s most demanding test yet,” the balloon programme’s chief Debbie Fairbrother was quoted as saying. Controllers detected a leak developing and issued flight termition commands. It fell over a remote area near the Queensland and New South Wales (NSW) border just east of Sturt tiol Park. (IANS)