• McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
• Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden.
• Wanaka, New Zealand.
Note that Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) missions are currently supported from
McMurdo, Wanaka, Alice Springs, and Kiruna.
6.1 NASA
There are a number of factors that determine the selection of sites for launching
balloons, including mission duration, need for flights over low-population areas
for safety reasons, and the science to be collected during the mission, cost, wind
speed, direction, and others.
6.1.1 Palestine, Texas
The first permanent base for launching stratospheric balloons for civilian use in
the U.S. can be traced to about 1960, when the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR) gathered a group of scientists involved in the investigation of
atmospheric phenomena. One of the priorities of the new center was to create a
scientific ballooning program with a fully equipped launch base. At that time, at
least 10 scientific groups in the U.S. were regularly using stratospheric balloons
for research.
Initially, the focus was on supporting Dr. Martin Schwarzschild, a physicist and
astronomer from Princeton who was in charge of Stratoscope II, a large aperture
telescope to be carried aloft by a stratospheric balloon. Its requirements of flight
drove NCAR’s search for a place to establish the permanent base. The site had to
be more or less in the center of the U.S. to allow for flights to the east in winter
and to the west in summer. This finally restricted the search only to the states of
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
After evaluating a few cities, the final selection was Palestine, TX, a small town
centrally located in the zone assigned by the FAA. It had an airport and the plan
was welcomed by the population. And it was located sufficiently to the north so
the balloons in summer would not cross the Mexican border and balloons flying
east in winter would not approach the populated zones of the Gulf of Mexico.
Construction began on lands that previously belonged to an Army base next to
the airport. Although the site was completed in 1962, NCAR retained its headquarters in Boulder, CO.
The first official launch took place on August 13, 1963, with a scientific payload called Sesame. The flight was nominal, but the termination system failed and
the balloon and its payload fell into the Pacific off Mexico. There were several
6.1 NASA 123
• Esrange, Kiruna, Sweden.
• Wanaka, New Zealand.
Note that Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) missions are currently supported from
McMurdo, Wanaka, Alice Springs, and Kiruna.
6.1 NASA
There are a number of factors that determine the selection of sites for launching
balloons, including mission duration, need for flights over low-population areas
for safety reasons, and the science to be collected during the mission, cost, wind
speed, direction, and others.
6.1.1 Palestine, Texas
The first permanent base for launching stratospheric balloons for civilian use in
the U.S. can be traced to about 1960, when the National Center for Atmospheric
Research (NCAR) gathered a group of scientists involved in the investigation of
atmospheric phenomena. One of the priorities of the new center was to create a
scientific ballooning program with a fully equipped launch base. At that time, at
least 10 scientific groups in the U.S. were regularly using stratospheric balloons
for research.
Initially, the focus was on supporting Dr. Martin Schwarzschild, a physicist and
astronomer from Princeton who was in charge of Stratoscope II, a large aperture
telescope to be carried aloft by a stratospheric balloon. Its requirements of flight
drove NCAR’s search for a place to establish the permanent base. The site had to
be more or less in the center of the U.S. to allow for flights to the east in winter
and to the west in summer. This finally restricted the search only to the states of
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.
After evaluating a few cities, the final selection was Palestine, TX, a small town
centrally located in the zone assigned by the FAA. It had an airport and the plan
was welcomed by the population. And it was located sufficiently to the north so
the balloons in summer would not cross the Mexican border and balloons flying
east in winter would not approach the populated zones of the Gulf of Mexico.
Construction began on lands that previously belonged to an Army base next to
the airport. Although the site was completed in 1962, NCAR retained its headquarters in Boulder, CO.
The first official launch took place on August 13, 1963, with a scientific payload called Sesame. The flight was nominal, but the termination system failed and
the balloon and its payload fell into the Pacific off Mexico. There were several
6.1 NASA 123