The team began preparations to launch today about 5am today, with the balloon inflation beginning about 9am.
After about two hours of inflating the balloon and ensuring wind conditions were optimal, it was launched into the cloudy skies just before 11am.
The Nasa team on site were excited and relieved to see the balloon go up after weeks of attempting to launch.
Nasa engineer Liz Bernhardt who helped with the balloon's payload was eagerly watching as the balloon went up.
"It was a lot of hard work, it's good to kind of just see the end of it" she said.
The United States' space agency was testing its super pressure balloon technology after several aborted launches.
The stadium-sized, heavy-lift balloons will travel the Southern Hemisphere’s mid-latitudes for planned missions of 100 days or more.
The first would carry instruments to take measurements more than 100km above the Earth’s surface. It would help scientists predict changes in the ionosphere, which affected communication and navigation systems.
It is the sixth super-pressure balloon campaign held in New Zealand since 2015, the most recent being two successful launches in 2023.
Nasa is planning two test flights this year.
- additional reporting APL
