HASP 2.0 (High Altitude Student Platform 2.0)

HASP stands for High Altitude Student Platform and is a program aimed to foster student excitement in an aerospace career path and to help address workforce development issues in this area. In the framework of the program a multi-instrumented platform was designed to carry up to twelve student payloads to an altitude of about 36 kilometers with flight durations of 15 to 20 hours using a small volume, zero pressure balloon. The payloads carried by HASP are designed and built by students and are used to flight-test compact satellites or prototypes and to fly other small experiments. The state of Louisiana and the Louisiana Space Consortium have funded the construction and operation of HASP and the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) through the NASA Balloon Program Office has committed to flying HASP once a year for three years.

This particular mission was an engineering test flight of the upgraded gondola and systems for the HASP program.

The old HASP platform has been flying student payloads since 2006, but the technology used is from late 1990 decade. For several years the program have been running into problems with the old tech, such as the CPU coin batteries running out of power or CF cards used for onboard flight storage being not available anymore. Thus, a couple years ago NASA Science Mission Directorate provided the program with funding to completely redo HASP using modern technology that include new electronics, a modern Real Time Device (RTD) computer stack, an EVTM internet over telemetry communication, and a new gondola frame. HASP 2.0 will be able to handle double the number of payloads from small ones (3 kg) to larger ones (20 kg).

Balloon launched on: 8/28/2024 at 13:12 UTC
Launch site: Scientific Flight Balloon Facility, Fort Sumner, (NM), US  
Balloon launched by: Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon Raven Aerostar 4.000.000 cuft
Flight identification number: 744NT
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 8/28/2024 at 19:48 UTC
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 6 h 35 m
Landing site: 65 km NW of Albuquerque, New Mexico, US

• NASA to Launch 8 Scientific Balloons From New Mexico NASA website