The day before the launched of NMSS-02, Flying Apple Space Studies launched FAST-21 — an experiment in long distance high altitude ballooning — from a site in southern California. Their goal was to achieve neutral buoyancy long enough to fly across the US and the Atlantic Ocean.

Unfortunately, just after sunrise on Saturday, FAST-21 warmed up enough to reach an altitude of 114,000 feet where the balloon burst — dropping its payload only 8 miles from the NMSS-02 launch site about 1 hour before the scheduled NMSS-02 launch time!

Chase crews set to recover NMSS-02 split up with two vehicles heading out to recover FAST-21.

An interesting (and funny) blog entry on the Flying Apple Space Studies web site tells the whole story.