An Overview of the NASA Sounding Rockets and Balloon Programs

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sounding Rockets and Balloon Programs conduct a combined total of approximately fifty to sixty missions per year in support of the NASA scientific community. These missions are provided in support of investigations sponsored by NASA'S Offices of Space Science, Life and Microgravity Sciences & Applications, and Earth Science. The Goddard Space Flight Center has management and implementation responsibility for these programs. The NASA Sounding Rockets Program has continued to su,pport the science community by integrating their experiments into the sounding rocket payload and providing the rocket vehicle and launch operations necessary to provide the altitude/time required obtain the science objectives. The sounding rockets continue to provide a cost-effective way to make in situ observations from 50 to 1500 km in the near-earth environment and to uniquely cover the altitude regime between 50 km and 130 km above the Earth's surface, which is physically inaccessible to either balloons or satellites. A new architecture for providing this support has been introduced this year with the establishment of the NASA Sounding Rockets Contract. The Program has continued to introduce improvements into their operations and ground and flight systems. An overview of the NASA Sounding Rockets Program with special emphasis on the new support contract will be presented. The NASA Balloon Program continues to make advancements and developments in its capabilities for support of the scientific ballooning community. Long duration balloon (LDB) is a prominent aspect of the program with two campaigns scheduled for this calendar year. Two flights are scheduled in the Northern Hemisphere from Fairbanks, Alaska, in June and two flights are scheduled from McMurdo, Antarctica, in the Southern Hemisphere in December. The comprehensive balloon research and development (R&D) effort has continued with advances being made across the spectrum of balloon related disciplines. As a result of these technology advancements a new ultra long duration balloon project (ULDB) for the development of a 100- day duration balloon capability has been initiated. The ULDB will rely upon new balloon materials and designs to accomplish its goals. The Program has also continued to introduce new technology and improvements into flights systems, ground systems and operational techniques. An overview of the various aspects of the NASA Balloon Program will be presented.