FIREBall-2 2023: flight communications performance

The balloon-borne UV telescope Faint Intergalactic Red-shifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall-2) was launched from Fort Sumner, NM on September 25, 2023, for its second attempted flight. The flight was unexpectedly terminated at ~10 hours due to a mechanical issue, and very little science data was obtained; however, this short flight provided an excellent opportunity to test the in-flight communications system. Testing the communication system pre-flight was challenging, and an accurate sense of signal reception and communication errors expected during flight could not be obtained. From launch to descent, very few data packets were dropped or corrupted. Had the flight continued for the expected duration, the success up to early termination gives confidence that the communications systems would have continued to meet our expectations. While this test was highly successful, some areas for improvement were identified and will be addressed before FIREBall-2’s next flight.