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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center

Scientific Ballooning

Balloon Program Office

Operations

Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), Palestine Texas

Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) Palestine is located just west of the Palestine Municipal Airport. CSBF Palestine encompasses about 192 hectares (474 acres) consisting of open and forested lands, two balloon launch pads, and several permanent buildings; the land and facilities are owned by NASA.

 

To the east, lies the town of Palestine. Immediately surrounding the launch facility are wooded lands and agricultural fields. This land is predominately privately owned. Balloon launches at CSBF Palestine generally occur between June and August.

A Palestine Campaign typically occurs in the summer timeframe. The mission profile is typically overnight westward flight trajectories from Palestine to west Texas (TX), up to 12 hours. This profile will allow dark sky science observations over short flight durations. The payloads will be processed for flight onsite at CSBF in Palestine, TX.

 

 


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Visitor Center

  • Visitor / Science Team check-in
  • Safety Briefings

Building 4 - Flight Operations

  • Payload flight equipment
  • Rigging Department

Building 11 - Staging

  • High bays for payload integration
  • Break room / Kitchen
  • Electronics lab

Building 25 - Test & Evaluation (T&E)

  • High bay for payload integration
  • BEMCO chamber for TVAC
  • LDB Engineering

Building 1 - Administration

  • CSBF Flight Project Managers
  • Meteorology Department
  • Shipping

Building 28 - Balloon Support

  • Electronics Department
  • Quality Assurance Lab
  • Machine Shops

Building 12 - Operations Control Center (OCC)

  • Communications
  • Supports up to 3 payloads
  • Receipt and Processing of Telemetry
  • Transferring experiment data to users

Home of NASA Balloon Operations

  • CSBF plans, develops, and operates facilities to provide operations services to meet the approved ballooning requirements of the scientific community.
  • Performs the necessary research and development to meet future scientific ballooning requirements.
  • Provides consulting services in the field of scientific ballooning.

More information on CSBF



NASA Code 820

Scientific Balloon Update

Report back for the latest update from NASA's Balloon Program Office.