UFO’ was a NASA experiment

A solar collection ballon glows in the evening sky as an airliner flies nearby above Gallup on Thursday evening. Area residents were mystified by the hovering object, which officials speculated was a weather ballon. [Photo by Brian Leddy/Independent]

By Leslie Wood
Staff writer

GALLUP — The reflective object seen floating in the sky Thursday evening was not a UFO or even a weather device, but a high-altitude science balloon.

The balloon was launched from Fort Sumner by NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility and passed through the Gallup area as the sun set on Thursday.

Some uncertainty surrounded the origin of the balloon, and many residents suspected the device was part of a project conducted by the Kirtland Air Force Base or the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque.

Some 20 concerned residents even contacted metropolitan dispatch to report the device they suspected might be a UFO; however, most reports indicated the object was a weather balloon.

But that’s not the case, according to Bill Stepp, manager of operations for the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility.

Stepp said the high-altitude science balloon was launched to research the surface of the sun and how mechanisms on the sun affect temperatures on the earth.

He said the sun research project is different from most of the facility’s projects that involve astrophysics, including gamma and cosmic rays.

“It was very successful,” Stepp said of Thursday’s operation.

The device and its adjoined science project was airborne for nearly 20 hours and landed 15 miles west of Holbrook, Ariz.

Stepp said weather balloons are about 5 to 6 feet in diameter, while high-altitude science balloons are about 541 feet in diameter and can carry a payload of about 4,000 pounds. For comparison, a high-altitude science balloon’s payload is as big as a Volkswagen and weighs as much as a Ford Taurus.

About six flights per year pass within 100 miles of Gallup, he said.

The facility’s headquarters is located in Palestine, Texas, and is managed by the Physical Science Lab of New Mexico State University. Employees launch large, unmanned, high-altitude research balloons and track the scientific experiments located beneath them.

The facility has campaigns throughout the world including Antarctica and Sweden.