9.1.8 New Mexico State University (NMSU)
A contract let on May 15, 1946 began the support of the U.S. Army’s flight test
program by NMSU Physical Science Laboratory (PSL). PSL provided technical
expertise and experience, as well as recruiting and training of student physicists,
scientists, engineers and mathematician who could, and very often did, enter the
world of scientific ballooning, space exploration and research.
In 1976, the first major ballooning contract (valued at about $300,000 per year)
was awarded by UCAR to PSL-NMSU in Las Cruces, NM. This took control of
the NSBF operations in fiscal year 1977. The addition of an external contractor
proved a success, with flight and mission failures dropping during the first few
years of the contract.
In his book “Exploring Near Space”, Dr. Henry C. Dethloff’s describes 1987 as
the start of a major transition in the balloon industry. It was in that year that the
administration and technical management of the NSBF was reassigned to NASA
and PSL-NMSU. In fact, it was in 1983 that the transition started by transferring
the balloon program responsibility from NCAR to NASA. This introduced major
structural changes in the business, science, goals, and the community engaged in
scientific ballooning.
PSL-NMSU assumed responsibility of the NSBF on October 1, 1987 and began
to apply all the experience and expertise they had learned over the previous 40
years in supporting the Army missile projects at the White Sands Proving Grounds
with captured German V-2 rockets, especially in tracking and telemetry, into scientific ballooning. This included recruiting and training programs for student
physicists, scientists, engineers and mathematicians who often entered the world
of scientific ballooning.
The following year NASA established the Long Duration Balloon Program,
with the office and team members largely consisting of engineers and technicians
who were associated with PSL. For nearly a decade the launch activities moved to
the McMurdo Station, Antarctica for the southern hemisphere and Fairbanks,
Alaska and Kiruna, Sweden in the northern hemisphere with an occasional launch
being made from Timmons in Alberta, Canada.
By 1996, PSL-NMSU was responding to NASA’s tighter budgetary and mission controls including more formal action items and real-time decisions, in particular documentation. By 1998 the contract as the organization responsible for
technical and operational services for foreign and domestic balloon flights and
appropriate operation flight support for launching, tracking and recovery of scientific balloons and their payloads came up for renewal. PSL supported the LDBP
for most of the 1990’s but the first decade of the 21st century focused on the
ULDB which was a technology centerpiece of NASA’s scientific balloon program
during this period.
9.1 Scientific Organizations 207
A contract let on May 15, 1946 began the support of the U.S. Army’s flight test
program by NMSU Physical Science Laboratory (PSL). PSL provided technical
expertise and experience, as well as recruiting and training of student physicists,
scientists, engineers and mathematician who could, and very often did, enter the
world of scientific ballooning, space exploration and research.
In 1976, the first major ballooning contract (valued at about $300,000 per year)
was awarded by UCAR to PSL-NMSU in Las Cruces, NM. This took control of
the NSBF operations in fiscal year 1977. The addition of an external contractor
proved a success, with flight and mission failures dropping during the first few
years of the contract.
In his book “Exploring Near Space”, Dr. Henry C. Dethloff’s describes 1987 as
the start of a major transition in the balloon industry. It was in that year that the
administration and technical management of the NSBF was reassigned to NASA
and PSL-NMSU. In fact, it was in 1983 that the transition started by transferring
the balloon program responsibility from NCAR to NASA. This introduced major
structural changes in the business, science, goals, and the community engaged in
scientific ballooning.
PSL-NMSU assumed responsibility of the NSBF on October 1, 1987 and began
to apply all the experience and expertise they had learned over the previous 40
years in supporting the Army missile projects at the White Sands Proving Grounds
with captured German V-2 rockets, especially in tracking and telemetry, into scientific ballooning. This included recruiting and training programs for student
physicists, scientists, engineers and mathematicians who often entered the world
of scientific ballooning.
The following year NASA established the Long Duration Balloon Program,
with the office and team members largely consisting of engineers and technicians
who were associated with PSL. For nearly a decade the launch activities moved to
the McMurdo Station, Antarctica for the southern hemisphere and Fairbanks,
Alaska and Kiruna, Sweden in the northern hemisphere with an occasional launch
being made from Timmons in Alberta, Canada.
By 1996, PSL-NMSU was responding to NASA’s tighter budgetary and mission controls including more formal action items and real-time decisions, in particular documentation. By 1998 the contract as the organization responsible for
technical and operational services for foreign and domestic balloon flights and
appropriate operation flight support for launching, tracking and recovery of scientific balloons and their payloads came up for renewal. PSL supported the LDBP
for most of the 1990’s but the first decade of the 21st century focused on the
ULDB which was a technology centerpiece of NASA’s scientific balloon program
during this period.
9.1 Scientific Organizations 207