National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Goddard Space Flight Center
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Balloon Program Office
Operations
Balloon Launch Locations
There are a number of factors that determine the selection of balloon launch locations. Among those are mission duration, need for flights over low-population areas for safety reasons, the science to be collected during the mission, cost, wind speed and direction, and many more.
Launch locations include:
- Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility. Palestine, TX
- Fort Sumner, NM
- McMurdo, Antarctica
- Esrange, Sweden
- Alice Springs, Australia
- Wanaka, New Zealand
The balloon flights from launch locations in the U.S. are usually short, hours to a day. These are called conventional balloon flights. The duration from other locations are longer, days to weeks. These are called long-duration balloon flights.
NASA Code 820
Scientific Balloon Update
Report back for the latest update from NASA's Balloon Program Office.
- NASA Official: Debora Fairbrother
- Point of Contact: Valerie Brizak