Scientific Balloons Overview

NASA’s Balloon Program Office provides low-cost, quick-response, near-space access for scientific research and technology maturation.

👁 A crane is leading a scientific balloon before launch. The balloon is to the right, and appears an a plastic, upside down teardrop. A tube attached to the top of the balloon leads down to the ground where a number of personnel are holding it. To the left, a crane holding a large payload structure with many solar panels is attached to the end of the balloon.

Mission Statement

The primary objective of the NASA Balloon Program is to provide high altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations. These investigations include fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe. Scientific balloons also provide a platform for the demonstration of promising new instrument and spacecraft technologies that enable or enhance the objectives for the Science Mission Directorate Strategic Plan.

Quick Facts

Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, the NASA Balloon Program has provided high-altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations, including fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe.

👁 Since its establishment more than 30 years ago, the NASA Balloon Program has provided high-altitude scientific balloon platforms for scientific and technological investigations, including fundamental scientific discoveries that contribute to our understanding of the Earth, the solar system, and the universe.

Balloons have been used for decades to conduct scientific studies. They can be launched from locations across the globe and are a low-cost method to carry payloads with instruments that conduct scientific observations.

👁 Balloons have been used for decades to conduct scientific studies. They can be launched from locations across the globe and are a low-cost method to carry payloads with instruments that conduct scientific observations.

Contact Us

👁 A large metal scientific instrument with black solar panels is suspended off the ground by a yellow crane. A white trail of material is on the ground and attaches to a partially inflated white balloon in the background.

Media Resources

Contact information and resources for members of the media.

Balloons provide low-cost, quick response, near-space access for:

Conducting cutting-edge research.
Developing technologies to enable future spacecraft science missions.
Advancing lighter-than-air platform technologies.
Providing calibration and validation of on-orbit instrumentation.
Enabling hands-on training for the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Program Management

The NASA Scientific Balloon Program (SBP) is the largest of its kind with the singular capability of heavy lift suborbital stratospheric platforms serving the greatest breadth of science disciplines and providing end-to-end engineering, operations, and management.

The Balloon Program is managed out of NASA Wallops Flight Facility providing program and project management, engineering, and integration and testing. The NASA Balloon Operations Contract II (NBOC II) operates from the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility to provide launch operations and engineering services to the SBP

The SBP supports an on-going flight manifest of approximately 8-16 flights per year with 40-60 missions in progress at various stages of the mission lifecycle and of varying complexities.

Operations are conducted world-wide at both fixed and temporary launch sites.

Funded by the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Astrophysics Division.

Example Scientific Balloon Missions

👁 Three people hold onto a large balloon against the Antarctic landscape

BARREL

Balloon Array for Radiation-belt Relativistic Electron Losses was a series of balloon campaigns to study Earth's radiation belts, designed to supplement measurements from NASA’s Van Allen Probes.

👁 A large scientific observatory with reflective solar panels is suspended from a crane while connected to an orange parachute that is laid on the snow-covered ground. A mountain covered in snow is in the distance.

GUSTO

Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory is a scientific balloon mission that will measure emissions from the interstellar medium, the material between stars. This data will help scientists determine the life cycle of interstellar gas in our Milky Way galaxy.

Scientific Balloon Program Information

Balloon Program Analysis for 2020 Astrophysics Decadal

Apr 17, 2025

PDF (88.13 MB)

👁 A scientific balloon being prepared for launch on a snowy landscape. The balloon is a clear plastic in the shape of an upside down tear drop. To the right is a large crane holding a square payload. The ground is completely covered in snow, and a snow-covered mountain is seen in the distance. The sky is bright blue with wispy clouds.

The Boron And Carbon Cosmic rays in the Upper Stratosphere (BACCUS) payload is being prepared for launch in McMurdo Station, Antartica.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility

👁 X-Calibur readies for flight

NASA Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility technicians conduct a compatibility test Sept. 6 on the 25-foot X-Calibur payload, which is set to launch in September on a 40-million-cubic-foot NASA scientific balloon from the agency’s launch site at Fort Sumner, N.M.

👁 Super Pressure Balloon launches

A NASA super pressure balloon takes to the skies on a potentially record-breaking, around-the-world flight, from Wanaka, New Zealand.

👁 Technicians attach the Sunrise payload to its balloon

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.

👁 A super pressure balloon being readied for launch

A super pressure balloon is being readied for launch.

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Scientific Balloons Media Resources

Media Resources for NASA's Scientific Balloons Program.

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Wallops Flight Facility Visitor Center

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URL: https://www.nasa.gov/scientificballoons/overview/