NASA reported on Oct. 6, 2026, that the final mission of its autumn balloon campaign, a reflight of the CORSAIR/WASP payload, concluded successfully. The agency said the mission launched at 7:30 a.m. MDT (9:30 a.m. EDT) on Oct. 5, 2026, from its facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, after an abort on Sept. 19. The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of around 102,000 feet and flew for 8 hours, 28 minutes, according to the report.

CORSAIR is described as a new science payload for studying the Sun's corona, using the Wallops Arc Second Pointer (WASP), a platform designed to point scientific instruments at targets during flight with sub-arc-second accuracy. NASA said the flight would demonstrate the payload's capabilities for a potential future Antarctica mission to observe the Sun over one solar rotation, a period it put at at least 27 days. That mission was presented as a possibility, not a confirmed plan.