Name: What it takes to launch a telescope
Uploaded: 2019-05-30T14:44:41Z
Duration: 7 min 8 s
Description: TED Fellow and astronomer Erika Hamden leads the team building FIREBall, a telescope that hangs from a giant balloon at the very edge of space and looks for clues about how stars are created. She takes us inside the roller-coaster, decade-long journey to get the telescope from an idea into orbit -- and shows how failure is inevitable when you're pushing the limits of knowledge.

TED Fellow and astronomer Erika Hamden leads the team building FIREBall, a telescope that hangs from a giant balloon at the very edge of space and looks for clues about how stars are created. She takes us inside the roller-coaster, decade-long journey to get the telescope from an idea into orbit -- and shows how failure is inevitable when you're pushing the limits of knowledge.

What it takes to launch a telescope

Scientific discovery advances by looking at the universe in entirely new ways, but innovation comes with relentless setbacks. Building a balloon-borne telescope to map immense, invisible hydrogen clouds took over a decade and weathered countless failures, from destroyed sensors to a crash-landing in the desert. Even after setbacks as dramatic as a punctured balloon, the journey continues because progress grows from refusing to quit. True exploration means accepting that failure is not the end, but a vital step toward new knowledge.