Fort Sumner OMS Balloon Campaign  
October 2002

THE ALIAS-II group arrived in Fort Sumner, New Mexico on October 2, 2002, and immediately dove into working hard. 

The A-Team hard at work preparing to get ALIAS-II flight ready.

ALIAS-II getting a manicure, pedicure, it's dewar filled, electronics tested, retraction mechanism adjusted,  optical chamber pressurized, a facial and massage.           

    The gondola is about to get weighed with a full payload.   It weighs in at about 1,100 pounds.  Waifish as far as gondola's go.

Now its time to roll the gondola out of the hangar.  

The ballast release tube is attached.  The crush pads are installed.  Everything looks good.

After the dry run is done, the gondola is brought back inside the hangar.  Getting over the hangar's sliding door railings on the way out was a little tough, so the NSBF guys were nice enough to bring the gondola over the railings with the crane before we set her down.  Making sure the gondola would rest on the cart frame properly required a team effort.

Now we wait till we get word that the weather looks good enough to make a launch attempt.

Balloon Launch

Coming soon.....

Adventures in gondola recovery!

  Y'all come back now, ya hear!

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