NSBF administration facility. A new engineering and management office building
was also constructed at NSBF. At the same time NASA made a decision to establish
a permanent facility at Fort Sumner, NM with the purchase of land at the Fort
Sumner airport. A new large high bay payload staging and integration facility was
constructed which also included an operations center for balloon flights.
After NASA assumed the management of the NSBF in 1983, the focus of the
scientific payloads changed over the next decade. Atmospheric science payloads
dominated NSBF operations in the early to mid-1980’s. Mostly they emphasized
payloads with one PI and a number of graduate students. Atmospheric payloads
continue to be flown under the sponsorship of the NASA Upper Atmospheric
Research Program. However, the number of flights now are only one or two per
year. Cosmic ray, gamma-ray, and high energy particles physics experiments
started to dominate with the Supernova flights in 1987. The NASA Balloon
Working Group pressed for heavier payload capability, the ability to routinely
support a minimum of two payloads in Antarctica, and move to a three payload
launch capability. As LDB system capabilities improved, scientific payloads
became more complex with teams of multiple PI’s, postdoc researchers, and graduate students. The relatively low reliability of science payloads that was acceptable in the 1980’s, with the ability to fix and re-fly a payload, became untenable as
routine launches from Antarctica were established in the 1990’s. Flight system
and payload integration testing requirements prior to shipping systems to
Antarctica were established by the NASA BPO to ensure a higher probability of
science success on Antarctica flights.
In the late 1990’s the NASA Balloon Program Office established the Ultra Long
Duration Balloon Project. The initial goal of this project was to establish the capability of supporting a 1,000 lb scientific payload at 120,000 foot altitude for 100 day
flight duration with a “pumpkin” shaped super-pressure balloon utilizing new high
strength films. NSBF issued a competitive RFP for the development of the new
ULDB balloon. Raven Industries won the contract and produced the first scale test
balloons. The NSBF and PSL-NMSU were involved in the design of balloon pressure control systems and instrumentation support systems. The initial balloon designs
showed promise but as the balloon sizes were scaled up, balloon design and operational reliability were restricting factors, resulting in significant project delays. By
2007 a number of redesigns and test inflations had appeared to resolve the reliability
issues, and smaller test balloons were being constructed for flight testing in 2008.
As the LDB flight support systems evolved and became reliable, NSBF supported LDB flight attempts from Fairbanks, Alaska traveling west over Alaska,
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Greenland and Canada. In 1998, one LDB was successfully flown from Fairbanks and terminated in northern Canada. The ability to
negotiate permission to overfly Russian territory proved to be problematic. The
following year the NSBF campaign had to be canceled days prior to launch, when
Russia refused to allow overflight. No further balloon flights have been attempted
Appendix 1: A Brief History of the NSBF/CSBF 265
was also constructed at NSBF. At the same time NASA made a decision to establish
a permanent facility at Fort Sumner, NM with the purchase of land at the Fort
Sumner airport. A new large high bay payload staging and integration facility was
constructed which also included an operations center for balloon flights.
After NASA assumed the management of the NSBF in 1983, the focus of the
scientific payloads changed over the next decade. Atmospheric science payloads
dominated NSBF operations in the early to mid-1980’s. Mostly they emphasized
payloads with one PI and a number of graduate students. Atmospheric payloads
continue to be flown under the sponsorship of the NASA Upper Atmospheric
Research Program. However, the number of flights now are only one or two per
year. Cosmic ray, gamma-ray, and high energy particles physics experiments
started to dominate with the Supernova flights in 1987. The NASA Balloon
Working Group pressed for heavier payload capability, the ability to routinely
support a minimum of two payloads in Antarctica, and move to a three payload
launch capability. As LDB system capabilities improved, scientific payloads
became more complex with teams of multiple PI’s, postdoc researchers, and graduate students. The relatively low reliability of science payloads that was acceptable in the 1980’s, with the ability to fix and re-fly a payload, became untenable as
routine launches from Antarctica were established in the 1990’s. Flight system
and payload integration testing requirements prior to shipping systems to
Antarctica were established by the NASA BPO to ensure a higher probability of
science success on Antarctica flights.
In the late 1990’s the NASA Balloon Program Office established the Ultra Long
Duration Balloon Project. The initial goal of this project was to establish the capability of supporting a 1,000 lb scientific payload at 120,000 foot altitude for 100 day
flight duration with a “pumpkin” shaped super-pressure balloon utilizing new high
strength films. NSBF issued a competitive RFP for the development of the new
ULDB balloon. Raven Industries won the contract and produced the first scale test
balloons. The NSBF and PSL-NMSU were involved in the design of balloon pressure control systems and instrumentation support systems. The initial balloon designs
showed promise but as the balloon sizes were scaled up, balloon design and operational reliability were restricting factors, resulting in significant project delays. By
2007 a number of redesigns and test inflations had appeared to resolve the reliability
issues, and smaller test balloons were being constructed for flight testing in 2008.
As the LDB flight support systems evolved and became reliable, NSBF supported LDB flight attempts from Fairbanks, Alaska traveling west over Alaska,
Russia, Sweden, Norway, Greenland and Canada. In 1998, one LDB was successfully flown from Fairbanks and terminated in northern Canada. The ability to
negotiate permission to overfly Russian territory proved to be problematic. The
following year the NSBF campaign had to be canceled days prior to launch, when
Russia refused to allow overflight. No further balloon flights have been attempted
Appendix 1: A Brief History of the NSBF/CSBF 265