Terri Sindelar
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                 
January 8, 1993
(Phone:  202/358-1977)


RELEASE:  93-8

UNIVERSITIES FLY OZONE RESEARCH BALLOON FROM TEXAS TO FLA.

     A NASA-sponsored university group will launch a high-altitude 
research balloon on Jan. 11, inaugurating a cooperative program to 
measure ozone distribution and wind parameters in the Earth's 
stratosphere.

     Following launch from the South Shore Harbor Resort and 
Convention Center, League City, Texas, at 8 a.m. EST, the 76-foot 
diameter, helium-filled balloon will ascend to an altitude of 
110,000 feet and fly across the Gulf of Mexico to Florida.  

     When the balloon reaches central Florida, a radio command will 
be sent to parachute the gondola and its instrument package back to 
Earth for recovery and reuse.

     Throughout the day-long flight, cooperating teams of amateur 
radio operators in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and 
Florida will receive position reports, ozone data and video images 
from the balloon's 50-pound gondola and will relay this information 
via high-frequency radio to a Utah State University balloon chase 
van.  

     The radio operators also will "home" on the payload's radio 
beacons to assist in recovering the gondola and balloon.  In 
addition, the Federal Aviation Administration will track a radar 
transponder in the gondola during ascent and descent through 
controlled airspace.

     The instrument package was designed and built by a volunteer 
team of space grant students and faculty from Utah State 
University's Space Dynamics Laboratory and from the Bridgeland 
Amateur Radio Club in the Cacha Valley of northern Utah.  This 
flight is the eleventh for this team and the first of 24-hours' 
duration.

     Extended-duration flights will be launched from Canada, the 
United States, Mexico and Central America to measure northern 
hemispheric ozone distribution and stratospheric circulation on a 
long-term basis.
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     The balloon is a revolutionary "superpressure" design 
manufactured by Winzen International of San Antonio and Sulphur 
Springs, Texas.  It is fabricated of Nylon film thinner than a 
human hair and is designed to stay aloft continuously for a year or 
more.

     The balloon launch is sponsored by NASA's National Space Grant 
College and Fellowship Program Office, Washington, D.C., and will 
take place during the third annual meeting of all 50 state 
consortia.  The District of Columbia and Puerto Rico also are 
participating in the program.

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