It was a lofty goal, but a University of Arizona-led team has achieved it with GUSTO.

A cosmic mission in Antarctica led by U of A astronomer Christopher Walker just set a new NASA record for the longest scientific balloon flight.

The team launched its massive helium balloon on Dec. 30, and the high-altitude observatory has been floating above the southern continent ever since, collecting infrared data about the lifecycle of stars in our galaxy and beyond.

At 10:22 a.m. Saturday Tucson time, the mission known as GUSTO — mercifully short for Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory — broke NASA’s previous record for the longest heavy-lift scientific balloon flight: a mark of 55 days, 1 hour and 34 minutes set in 2012, also in Antarctica.

He and his team from the U of A’s Steward Observatory worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other partners to provide the telescope and instrumentation for GUSTO.

The observatory is studying the cosmic gas and dust between stars that gives birth to new stars and galaxies.