When the satellite communications failed on NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon-borne Imaging Telescope, SuperBIT, the team knew they were in danger of losing their astronomical imaging data, which the telescope had painstakingly gathered from above 99.5 per cent of the atmosphere. But the mission planners had a backup plan.
Their idea was to drop the entire telescope, with all its data, to the ground by parachute so it could be used again. Having circumnavigated the southern hemisphere five times, mostly over the ocean, the team understood their opportunities were limited. Their best chance for recovery was the upcoming landfall over Argentina on 25 May 2023. By simulating windspeeds and weather patterns, they were able to predict, more or less, where the instrument would land.
In the event, a crucial part of this plan went wrong. After the telescope touched down in a remote part of Santa Cruz province Argentina, the parachute failed to disengage as planned. Then, in the hours it took the search and rescue team to find the instrument, the wind dragged it for 3 kilometers across the rolling hills of Argentinian wilderness, destroying the telescope in a trail of debris.
