NASA successfully launched a super pressure balloon from New Zealand's South Island Wanaka Airport Tuesday to conduct near-space scientific investigations.The launch marks the fifth attempt to get the massiveballoon airborne, with previous bids thwarted by bad weather,NASA said in a release.Long-duration balloon flights at constant altitudes play animportant role in providing inexpensive access to the near-spaceenvironment for science and technology.The 532,000 cubic metres (18.8 million cubic feet) balloonis expected to circumnavigate the globe about the southernhemisphere's mid-latitudes once every one to three weeks,depending on wind speeds in the stratosphere, NASA said. The aimis for it remain airborne for more than 100 days.According to NASA the balloon's operational float altitudeis 33.5 kms (20.8 miles) and it will be visible from the ground,particularly at sunrise and sunset, in the southern hemisphere'smid-latitudes, such as Argentina and South Africa.NASA's balloon experts at its Columbia Scientific BalloonFacility and NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia, willcontrol balloon flight operations throughout the mission.The current record for a NASA super pressure balloon flightis 54 days. Tuesday's launch was the second super pressureballoon mission from Wanaka. The first launch occurred March 27,2015, flying 32 days, 5 hours, and 51 minutes.