Scientific Balloon Gallery
Super Pressure Balloon Launch from Wanaka, New Zealand
A NASA Super Pressure Balloon just before launch from Wanaka, New Zealand, March 26, 2015, on a journey that will significantly expand the envelope for conducting near-space scientific investigations.<br>Image Credit: NAS
Scientific Balloon Against a Sunset
A scientific balloon is partially inflated before flight.
Boron And Carbon Cosmic rays in the Upper Stratosphere (BACCUS) Payload
The Boron And Carbon Cosmic rays in the Upper Stratosphere (BACCUS) payload prepares for launch via a 40-million-cubic-foot NASA Scientific Balloon.
Liftoff! NASA Balloon to Fly Around the Globe and Validate Technology
A NASA super pressure balloon takes to the skies on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world flight, from Wanaka, New Zealand.
NASA’s Super Pressure Balloon is Hoping to Break Records
A super pressure balloon is being readied for launch.
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A NASA scientific balloon readies for launch from Fort Sumner, New Mexico. NASA's Fort Sumner Scientific Balloon campaign kicks-off Aug. 31 with a test flight. Four flights total are planned during the campaign.
BRRISON Readies for Sept. 28 launch
Following a Sept. 27 weather briefing, the NASA scientific balloon launch team and the Balloon Rapid Response for ISON (BRRISON) payload team have targeted 8 p.m. EDT, Saturday, Sept. 28, for the BRRISON launch from Ft. Sumner, N.M.
NASA Scientific Balloon in Antarctica
NASA image captured December 25, 2011 A NASA scientific balloon awaits launch in McMurdo, Antarctica. The balloon, carrying Indiana University's Cosmic Ray Electron Synchrotron Telescope (CREST), was launched on December 25. After a circum-navigational flight around the South Pole, the payload landed on January 5. The CREST payload is one of two scheduled as part of this seasons' annual NASA Antarctic balloon Campaign which is conducted in cooperation with the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs. The campaign's second payload is the University of Arizona's Stratospheric Terahertz Observatory (STO). You can follow the flights at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility's web site at <a href="http://www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm">www.csbf.nasa.gov/antarctica/ice.htm</a> Credit: NASA <strong><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html">NASA image use policy.</a></strong> <strong><a href="https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/home/index.html">NASA Goddard Space Flight Center</a></strong> enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission
Scientific Balloon Launch from Sweden
Technicians attach the Sunrise payload to its balloon and parachute. The giant crane holds the gondola plus telescope payload steady until the balloon inflates and rises to an altitude sufficient to lift the payload from the crane. This image was taken at the launch site in Kiruna, Sweden June 2009. The balloon-borne gondola contained a 1-meter solar telescope as well as other instruments on a mission to investigate the structure and dynamics of the Sun's magnetic fields.
Super Pressure Balloon Launch from Wanaka, New Zealand
NASA is returning to Wanaka, New Zealand, for another Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) launch campaign in 2017. Pictured here, the 18.8 million-cubic-foot SPB prepares fro lift-off from Wanaka Airport in 2016.
Super Pressure Balloon Fully Inflated
NASA's Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) fully inflated and flying at 110,000 feet as seen from the balloon gondola looking up.
Super Pressure Balloon Launch from Wanaka, New Zealand
A NASA super pressure balloon takes to the skies on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world flight, from Wanaka, New Zealand.
Carrying a Telescope Aloft
Carried by a balloon the size of a football stadium, ASTHROS will use a telescope to observe wavelengths of light that aren't visible from the ground.
First NASA Scientific Balloon Flight Kicks Off Campaign in Fort Sumner
NASA’s Scientific Balloon Program’s first scientific balloon of the fall campaign took flight Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023, at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Fort Sumner, New Mexico with the successful launch and recovery of the Salter Test Flight.
On Cupid! On, Donner and BARREL!
Four reindeer walk past the BARREL payload on the launch pad at Esrange Space Center near Kiruna, Sweden. The BARREL team was at Esrange Space Center launching a series of six scientific payloads on miniature scientific balloons. The NASA-funded BARREL – which stands for Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses – primarily measured X-rays in Earth’s atmosphere near the North and South Poles.
NASA Scientific Balloon in New Zealand
NASA launched a second super pressure balloon from New Zealand at 8:02 p.m. EDT Friday, May 12, 2023, on a mission that could run for up to 100 days or more.
SuperBIT Sees Colliding Antennae Galaxies
This view of the Antennae Galaxies, two large galaxies colliding 60 million light-years away, is one of the first research images from the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT) that launched on a scientific super pressure balloon April 16, 2023 (local time New Zealand).
SuperBIT Launch
A super pressure balloon partially inflated as it's being prepared to launch from Wānaka, New Zealand, April 16, with the SuperBIT payload.
Super Pressure Balloon Carrying SuperBIT
A super pressure balloon fully inflated after it launched from Wānaka, New Zealand, April 16 local time. The launched carried the SuperBIT payload.
The Raven Aerostar team
The Raven Aerostar Super Pressure Balloon Team.
SPB construction
Balloon fabricators at Raven Aerostar's Sulphur Springs, Texas, manufacturing facility reposition balloon material during super pressure balloon construction.
NASA History: Flight of HEROES – Sept. 21, 2013
In 2013, the High-Energy Replicated Optics for Exploring the Sun mission launched aboard the Columbia Scientific Balloon from Fort Sumner, New Mexico.
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Technicians bring the balloon gondola back to its hangar after canceling a launch attempt May 13.
Wanaka Outreach
Peter von Ballmoos, scientist and collaborator on the Extreme Universe Space Observatory on a Super Pressure Balloon (EUSO-SPB) mission, discusses the electromagnetic spectrum to a group of 12th grade students at Mount Aspiring College, Wanaka, New Zealand.
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NASA's Scientific Balloon Program is back in Wanaka, New Zealand, for another flight test of its super pressure balloon, or SPB, technology to support science missions for longer flight durations, with flights running up to 100 days.
SPB
Technicians from NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility inspect the gondola in preparation for a planned super pressure balloon attempt.
DSC00081 SuperBIT Compatibility
Technicians work on the SuperBIT payload during a hang compatibility test April 3, 2023, at the scientific balloon launch site in Wānaka, New Zealand.
NASA Leadership Tours Wallops Flight Facility
Debbie Fairbrother, chief of the Balloon Program Office at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, center, speaks with Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Bob Cabana, NASA associate administrator, Dave Pierce, director of NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy, and Dennis Andrucyk, director of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center during a tour the Small Satellites, Balloon Research and Development Lab, Tuesday, Aug. 10, 2021, at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
HIWIND Launched June 24 on a NASA Scientific Balloon from Esrange, Sweden
The High altitude Interferometer Wind observation (HIWIND) payload from the High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, was launched June 24 on a NASA scientific balloon from Esrange, Sweden.