History: The precursor to the NSBF was established in Boulder Colorado in 1961 under the National Science Foundation. The facility moved to Palestine, TX in 1963 during the Lyndon Johnson administration and was designated the National Scientific Balloon Facility in 1973. The base provides complete operations services and engineering support. This

includes everything from inflation and launching to tracking and recovery. The Palestine, Texas balloon base has a long, proud history. The balloon base now launches 25 - 35 balloons a year. In 25 years it has launched 2500 balloons and has never had an accident. Balloon base staff have recovered the scientific payloads over 90% of the time!

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Location:
The balloon base site in Palestine, Texas was first put in use in 1963. The site was chosen because the area was relatively uninhabited and balloon launches could be scheduled throughout the year. (Once launched, balloons can drift for several hundred miles depending on the wind's direction and speed.) Since that time the population in the surrounding area has increased, causing NASA to rethink the ballooning schedule. In the early 1980's.,NASA decided that it was unsafe to launch balloons when it would be likely for the balloons to drift towards the more densely populated areas. Now balloons are launched between June and August, when the westwardly direction of the winds are optimal for directing the balloon towards less populated regions.

Operations:
The Operations Department has a mechanical section, an electronics section, meteorologists and pilots. It is the department that interacts most closely with the scientists and the experiments.

Figure 1. Parachute on the floor in the process of being assembled.	Figure 2. Photo of Interface Box Tracking Equipment.
Figure 3. High Bay	Figure 4. Chase plane tracking the flight of the MSAM/TopHat payload, September 1998.

 

Tracking Planes: The base has two airplanes. These aircraft are used for tracking. They follow the balloons closely and are there when the balloon is brought down.

Meteorology: Getting a balloon off the ground is difficult in terms of the weather. Accurate forecasts must always be available. Accurate forecasts of the wind speed directions are also needed. The wind has to be measured at different attitude levels. When the payload leaves the ground, the distance from the bottom to top of one of the large balloons is about 1000 ft.

Figure 5. View from center of the launch pad.

The Launch Pad:
In 1973 a new 1000-foot diameter launch pad was constructed with an additional 600 feet of "fingers" (roadways that extend outwards from the launch pad) that extend outside the circle. The fingers are laid out to accomodate all wind directions. In case the wind changes direction, this launch pad design maximizes the launch area. This allows the base to launch larger balloons. The new launch pad has flown a balloon with a volume as large as 70,00,000 cubic feet.

The Launch Window:
The launch window at the NBSF base in Palestine, Texas is between mid May and early September. Because of wind patterns at that time of year the balloons will drift westward during their flight. The area 200 miles west NBSF base is sparsly populated and the risk of an accident is minimal. In September the winds begin to change.

Occasionally a balloon has to be brought down prematurely, if the wind direction causes the balloon to vear in the direaction of a heavily populated area. This has happened only rarely.

There is a risk of tornadoes in the area. The NBSF staff is always on the lookout for such an event. However, in 25 years, a tornado has never struck the NBSF balloon base.