Ouch - balloon launch gone bad

[Steffen]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2010/04/29/2885724.htm

That's gonna hurt…

Cheers
Steffen.

[peterl]

"WOW."
Looks like the cage assembly unclipped itself before the designated time
and swung down like a swing and Bang on the ground!!
The Balloon should either have been directly overhead and released or the crane extended fully up away from the ground.
"Tough Day at the office" !! :(

Peter

[hotspur]

Ah-what ashame,sad to see.I think Peterl is on the right track,something was released to early,it does look like a disaster.from what I saw a few things were not factored in for a good release.Yes-that is what you call "a bad day at the office".

Thanks for the link Steffen,I just caught a small bit on news,and not much else.

I notice on the comment section of the link,people said the cars shouldn't have been parked so close,- the pay load was well a truly destroyed before it got any where near car!

Wonder who pays for this disaster!such a waste of scientific equipment:(

[erick]

I had a sense the balloon was too far to one side - perhaps a touch more wind than they wanted. It may have been putting too much sideways tension on the crane and the coupling to the crane which gave way??

Just guesses since I haven't seen footage of a successful launch.

[erick]

There is one in the middle of this footage:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48d6gEciJKo

[that_guy]

hehehe, steffen... You spelt Typo wrong!!