Scientific Balloons

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Scientific Balloon Program Office (BPO) is a suborbital space flight program utilized primarily in support of space and earth sciences research activities sponsored 

by NASA. A balloon serves as a carrier for science instruments in a similar manner as an orbiting satellite or the Space 

Shuttle would, but at much lower costs. Added benefits of balloons compared to other carriers are that balloons can 

fly larger and heavier payloads in as little as six months time once being approved for mission support. Balloon instruments can also be recovered and flown again. 

Scientific balloons are very large structures typically made of a thin, 

0.02 mm (0.8 mil) thick, polyethylene film, about the same thickness 

as an ordinary sandwich wrap. The structure is assembled from gores 

shaped like “banana peels”. For the commonly used 1.12 x 106 m3 (40 

million cubic foot) balloon, each gore is approximately 183 m (660 

ft) long and 3 m (9 ft) wide at the mid-point. Heat is used to seal the 

gores together to make up the final structure. The seals also include 

load tapes for supporting the suspended payload. When the balloon 

is fully inflated, it can reach up to 140 m (460 ft) in diameter and 121 

m (396 ft) in height. The balloon system at launch includes a balloon, 

a parachute and a gondola that carries the science experiment or test 

article. The total suspended load from a scientific balloon can weigh 

as much as 3600 kg (8,000 lbs) and can be lifted to an altitude of 36 

km (118,000 ft). Higher altitudes can be achieved with lighter payloads. 

For decades, balloons have been used to conduct scientific studies. 

While the basics of ballooning remain unchanged, balloons have increased in size, and their dependability has greatly improved.

Balloon System

www.nasa.gov
Balloon missions support all science disciplines including Astrophysics, Earth Science, Planetary Science, Heliophysics, 

and Technology Development. Since its inception, scientific balloons have produced profound cutting edge science discoveries. 

NASA balloon science has yielded previously unknown insight of 

the Earth’s atmosphere, the sun, the near-Earth space environment 

and the universe. The Boomerang and MAXIMA balloon science 

instruments mapped the anisotropies of the edge of the expanding universe through Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) science, thus confirming the inflation model of the universe’s expansion, one of the great scientific confirmations of the 20th Century. 

Balloons contributed to identification of cosmic-ray antiprotons, which were shown to be the result of well-known cosmic 

rays colliding with interstellar gas and dust, placing constraints 

on the kind of super symmetric particles that make up dark matter. Scientific balloons made the earliest detections of gamma-ray 

lines from Super Nova 1987A, positron emission from the galaxy, and black-hole X-ray transients in the galactic center region. 

NASA Earth Science instruments made observations of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and chlorine monoxide (ClO) radicals in 

the stratosphere, confirming the CFC ozone-depletion theory.

NASA scientific balloons have provided fundamental discoveries 

leading to maturation of science and technologies on spacecraft missions. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) instruments 

were developed on scientific balloons. Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) scientific balloon payloads flown in the late 1980’s and 

1990’s provided the basis for the design of the Wilkinson Microwave 

Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) Spacecraft. Dr. David Wilkinson conducted numerous scientific balloon flights during his career studying the CMB. Detectors on the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar 

Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) mission were first developed and 

demonstrated on scientific balloons. The scintillating fiber trajectory 

detector on the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) Cosmic Ray 

Isotope Spectrometer was demonstrated first on a balloon flight. The 

Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES), and High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) 

instruments on the Earth Observing System (EOS-Aura) satellite 

all trace their heritage to instruments that first flew on balloons.

Scientific balloons have contributed to numerous NASA strategic objectives. Measurements were made to determine the portion of the 

polarization of the CMB that was caused by primordial gravitational 

waves, which offers great promise for understanding the inflationary 

period of the universe. Scientific balloon experiments advanced cosmological models and played a key role in development of detectors 

and technologies necessary for polarization measurements made on 

space missions. Balloon instruments such as the Primordial Anisotropy Polarization Pathfinder Array (PAPPA), E-and B-mode Explorer 

(EBEX), and Balloon Borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope 

(BLAST) have made important measurements of the CMB and foreground microwave radiation and are vital for developing technologies 

required for future space satellite investigations of CMB polarization. 

In the area of high-energy cosmic ray physics, the Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, and NASA are developing a coordinated, broad program of ground, scientific balloon, and space satellite platforms to discover and study the highest energy matter in the 

universe and the sources that produce them. The Antarctic Impulsive 

Transient Antenna (ANITA) instrument has detected neutrinos with 

energy above 1018 eV interacting with the Antarctic ice. Collisions of 

the highest-energy cosmic rays with the CMB must produce neutrinos 

with energy on the order of 1017-19 eV. Balloons can monitor a million 

square kilometers of Antarctic ice looking for bursts of coherent gigahertz radio frequency emission which arises from the Askaryan effect 

in a high energy electromagnetic cascade. These radio bursts are produced by interactions of ultrahigh energy neutrinos in the ice. This is a 

unique capability, not achievable with ground or spacecraft instruments. 

The balloon-borne X-Calibur investigation will greatly extend our 

capability for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy to learn what happens to space, time, and matter at the edge of a black hole. Balloon-borne prototype experiments for the Energetic X-ray Imaging 

Survey Telescope (ProtoEXIST) will further develop technology for 

large area arrays of CdZnTe imaging detectors and test scanning coded aperture imaging in a space-like environment. The balloon-borne 

Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) will advance earlier 

studies to understand the development of structure and the cycles 

of matter and energy in the evolving universe and, thereby, provide 

support for a satellite-borne Advanced Compton Telescope (ACT).

Heliophysics scientific balloon telescopes will determine conditions 

that cause heating of the solar chromosphere that produces many 

of the strongest emission lines in the solar Extreme Ultraviolet 

(EUV) spectrum. Scientific balloons will also be used to study netosphere that cannot be obtained from in-situ observations alone. 

the dayside aurora. The aurora provides a map of magnetospheric 

Balloons Contributed to Many Scientific Discoveries
Scientific balloons compliment earth observing satellites by providing in-situ validation to understand how future changes in atmospheric composition will affect ozone and climate. They provide 

observations of detailed processes on much finer spatial and temporal scales than satellites. Arctic winter flights can probe detailed 

microphysical processes leading to polar stratospheric clouds that 

cannot be studied from space satellite observations. NASA scientific 

balloons are direct contributors of world class cutting edge science 

and integral for technology development for spacecraft missions.

Balloons Provide a Versatile and Cost Efficient Platform 

for Conducting Scientific Investigations

ANITA-3 will search for ultra-high energy neutrinos from cosmic ray particle interactions 

using an array of broadband radio antennas. The antennas are optimized for detection 

and localization of impulsive radio events that originate from the Antarctic ice sheets.
Balloon Launch and Operation

The balloon is inflated with helium and launched with the payload 

suspended beneath it. As the balloon rises, the helium expands and 

fills the balloon until it reaches full inflation. Two to three hours after 

launch, the balloon will reach its “float” altitude. As the balloon drifts 

across the sky driven by the stratospheric winds, the science instrument gathers data. At the end of the mission, a command is sent 

from a ground station to separate the payload from the balloon. The 

parachute opens, bringing the payload back to the ground for safe 

impact and recovery to be returned to the science team. The balloon 

falls to the ground where it is recovered and disposed of. 

NASA presently flies conventional and Long Duration Balloon 

(LDB) flights. Test flights of the new Super Pressure Balloon (SPB)

are underway and full operation is expected in the very near future. 

SPB will enable Ultra Long Duration Missions (ULDB) on the order of 100 days. It will also maintain “near” constant altitude at any 

latitude. 

For more information on the NASA Scientific Balloons, Please Contact the Balloon Program Office at (757) 824-1480; or visit 

http://sites.wFor more information on the NASA Scientific Balloons, Please Contact the Balloon Program Office at (757) 824-1480; 

visit http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code820/; or scan the QR code to the right.

Scientific Balloons Launch Locations Worldwide

NP-2014-9-181-GSFC