Purpose of the flight and payload description
A balloon-borne instrument to make measurements of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy on angular scales between 0.5 and 3 degrees. The experiment uses a one meter, off-axis Cassegrian telescope, coupled with a four spectral band radiometer. The pointing for the experiment is controlled by a platform which was originally built in the early 1980's by a group at GSFC to map the Galactic plane (FIRS instrument).
Details of the balloon flight
Balloon launched on: 5/29/1995
Launch site: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), Palestine, Texas, US
Balloon launched by: National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon
Flight identification number: ABT#13
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 5/29/1995
Landing site: Aborted flight
No results obtained as the flight was aborted. This mission was succesfully flown on June 1st (see below)
External references
- A Balloon-borne Millimeter-Wave Telescope for Cosmic Microwave Background Anisotropy Measurements Astrophysical Journal v.470, p.63
- Microwave Mappers Sweat Details SCIENCE - 25 Mar 1994 - Vol 263, Issue 5154 - pp. 1682-1684
- The MSAM/TopHat Program of Anisotropy Measurements Astrophysical Letters and Communications, Vol. 32, p.273
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