NASA Launches UMass Lowell Telescope In Bid To Identify New Planets

LOWELL, MA — NASA launched a telescope designed and built by UMass Lowell and the space agency in a bid to identify planets beyond the solar system and other objects in space that would otherwise go unnoticed because they are hidden by the glare of nearby stars.

Tethered to a gigantic helium balloon inflated to about 39 million cubic feet — about the size of a football field — the telescope lifted off Wednesday morning from the NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, according to a media release from the UMass Lowell.

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"Known as 'PICTURE-D,' the instrument weighs 1,500 pounds and measures 14 feet long by 4 feet wide," the release said.

The instrument includes a specialized imaging and optical control system built by a research team in the university’s Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology and the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia," according to the release.

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After the mission was completed, NASA controllers on the ground released the cable that tethered the balloon to the telescope, allowing the device to parachute down to Earth, the release said.

The project was funded by a $7 million, five-year grant from NASA’s Astrophysics Research and Analysis Program to UMass Lowell, according to the release.

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