NASA's Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON) launches at 8:10 p.m. EDT on Sept. 28, 2013, from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, N.M. The gondola carries a 0.8-meter telescope and two instruments that will attempt to observe Comet ISON, a rare type of Oort Cloud comet that will pass close to the sun on Nov. 28, 2013. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., built BRRISON and manages the project for NASA.