SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A giant research balloon intended to circle the globe at the edge of space was forced down Sunday by shifting high-altitude winds less than 24 hours after its launch.

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The NASA balloon landed near Carnarvon in northwest Australia, about 1,240 miles (1,995 kilometers) west of its launch site in the central Australian city of Alice Springs, project managers said.

NASA had hoped the Ultra Long Duration Balloon would circumnavigate Earth at a height of 20 miles (32 kilometers), scraping along the edge of the atmosphere and studying outer space.

However, the project has been dogged by problems.

There were lengthy delays ahead of a first launch, which finally took place Feb. 25. That balloon was destroyed when controllers brought it down by remote control a few hours into its flight after it sprang a leak. NASA is still trying to determine what went wrong with the first balloon.

Controllers admitted Saturday they were not hopeful the second balloon would complete its trip around the globe because of poor wind conditions.

Acting station director Garry Woods tried Sunday to put the second short flight in a positive light.

"It has been an engineering success -- but it did not go as smoothly as people would have liked,'' he said, blaming changes in high-altitude jet stream winds.

Woods said NASA had decided to go ahead with the test despite the bad conditions because it would provide extra information needed for research.

The balloon is the largest single-chamber, high-pressure balloon ever flown, with a fully inflated diameter of 193 feet (59 meters) and a height of 115 feet (35 meters).

Designers hope that future missions to study the Sun and search for new planets will last up to 100 days. Conventional high-altitude balloon flights last no more than a week because day-night temperature changes reduce altitude.