Future aperture upper limits on balloon-borne telescopes are expected to be some 2.5-meters, about the size of the Hubble Space Telescope.
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But the researchers who have been flying a balloon-borne telescope in Antarctica seem to have saved us from any mind-bending alternatives.
Each year, doctors in America perform about a million angioplasty procedures, using a balloon-tipped catheter to open clogged arteries and relieve chest pain.
The hype was Macy's balloon-sized for this horse, who was undefeated as a 2-year-old until the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, where he came in second.
To date, balloon-borne activities have centered around heliophysics and astrophysics that have not required precision-pointing, says Near-Earth Object (NEO) program officer Rob Landis at NASA headquarters.
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Between 1990 and 2005, the CPSC reported 69 balloon-related choking deaths of children under 15, with another 97 coming from marbles, balls and small toy parts.
On propeller driven aircraft, balloon-like devices attached to the wings and tail are inflated and deflated with air from the engines, breaking up any ice accumulation.
Not surprisingly, when Ecuador announced that it was floating the sucre, the currency spiraled down like a deflated balloon -- just as had happened with the Asian currencies.
Some of the changes for volunteers include a physical fitness test, lessons in the physics of balloon-handling and a free three-month gym membership to help them shape up.
Perhaps her story begins in a cold, seaside town, with a wardrobe that includes a cashmere cable-knit turtleneck with a flared leather miniskirt or balloon-leg pants tucked into her boots.
Balloon-based planetary science could potentially save NASA hundreds of millions of dollars when compared to the cost of analogous spacecraft, while offering almost Hubble Space Telescope-quality images and once-in-a-lifetime observing opportunities.
FORBES: Budgets Nudge NASA Toward Balloon-Based Planetary Science: First Target? Comet ISON
For the first time in over four decades, NASA is planning to use the edge of our own stratosphere to initiate what it hopes will be a new balloon-based planetary science program.
FORBES: Budgets Nudge NASA Toward Balloon-Based Planetary Science: First Target? Comet ISON
But, potentially balloon-slicing winds weren't the biggest concern.
The stately and fantastical architecture, the history hanging in the air of the markets, the scent of jasmine in the ladies' car of the train, the gardens and street vendors and balloon-wallahs and intellectuals in old libraries - it will all take you in if you let it.
The initial "push" upward by the cold front on that balloon filled with surface air is like a child letting a helium-filled balloon go -- it just keeps rising.
The British Association of Balloon Operators (BABO) - a UK trade body for commercial hot air balloon operators - said it had received an "unacceptably high" number of complaints about Go Ballooning.
In an effort to investigate ways that hospitals can improve outcomes through decreasing door-to-balloon times, he initiated and chaired the steering committee of D2B: An Alliance for Quality, an international campaign launched by the American College of Cardiology to implement key evidence-based strategies to achieve guideline recommended door-to-balloon times.
Their balloon GBR-1 landed in northern Spain on Monday morning having travelled 849.88km (528 m).
Higher charges, especially for trading, could cause global wholesale banks' risk-weighted assets to balloon by one-fifth on average, reckons Huw van Steenis of Morgan Stanley.
Tethered to a large helium-filled balloon, the 23-pound Sword, as it's known, was able to climb up and down the long cable while workers kept the balloon steady with guide ropes.
Parade executives approached Donnelly a couple of years ago, and the 40-foot-long balloon, made from urethane-coated nylon, has been in process ever since.
This pending move back to planetary science from earth sub-orbit comes on the heels of improvements in pointing systems and instrument technologies that will allow ground-based controllers to fine-tune balloon payloads to include one-meter class optical and infrared telescopes.
FORBES: Budgets Nudge NASA Toward Balloon-Based Planetary Science: First Target? Comet ISON
Four and a half pages alone are devoted to water-balloon fights that he orchestrated while in college.
Amateur video taken from another balloon and shown on Al-Jazeera Mubasher television showed the balloon's final moments.
"The flight itself was interesting, fairly long, but went extremely well, " Jones, a 51-year-old British balloon flight instructor, said of the 20-day adventure.
In March 1999, Piccard was on the final leg of an around-the-world journey by hot air balloon the first-ever nonstop flight of its kind when his Breitling Orbiter 3 swept low over the Egyptian desert and skidded to a halt on the corrugated plains.
WSJ: A Solar-Powered Plane Travels Light | WSJ. Magazine May 2013
Adirondack Balloon Festival (September 20-23): This is the 40th anniversary of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, the oldest and largest balloon gathering on the East Coast.
Or whenever a party occurs on Facebook, a lone, half-deflated balloon could descend from the ceiling.
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In 1783, brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier made the first public demonstration of a hot-air balloon.
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