STRATOSPHERIC BALLOON BASES IN THE WORLD

The origins of the first permanent base for stratospheric balloon launching of civil use in the U.S., can be traced at the beginning of the decade of the 60's when was founded in Boulder, Colorado, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) institution that reunited a group of scientists involved in the atmospheric investigation. One of the priorities of the new center was to develope a scientific ballooning program along with a full equiped launch base. At that time at least 10 scientific groups existed in the U.S. wich used regularly stratospheric balloons for their research, and they were who showed more interest in that effort.

Initially the general opinion was to use the facilities and existing infrastructure in Holloman AFB, New Mexico, but that would reduce the program independence of objectives. Also the Air Force was very reluctant to allow the entrance of foreign scientists to its facilities, so was clear that the initiative would have to be developed outside the military scene.

Martin Schwarzschild, a scientist working at Princeton, was in charge of a pharaonic project called Stratoscope II. It was a gigantic telescope created to be carried to the stratosphere by a balloon (at that time the sixth great telescope on the U.S). Their requirements of flight were the corner stone on which the NCAR began to search for a place to establish the permanent base: it had to be a site more or less located in center of the country, to allow to make flights towards the East in winter and to the inverse direction in summer. This finally restricted the search only to the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas.

Initially the small city of Hope, in Arkansas, was selected because it had a fabulous airfield and great hangars, but the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) did not authorize his use for balloon launchings because it was located in the middle of several national airways. To solve the problem and help in the election the FAA assigned to the NCAR a more or less ample block of airspace in the east of Texas so they can chose the city that better filled their requeriments. That zone was located far away from the populated airways of mainstream commercial traffic.

After evaluating a few cities the final election was Palestine, a small town located just in the center of the assigned zone by the FAA. The site counted with an airport and the news of the establishment of the base generated enthusiasm among the local people. Also, it was located sufficiently to the north so the balloons in summer will not cross the Mexican border (a prohibition exists to fly 50 miles from the limit) and in winter flying towards the east, did not approach the populated zones of the Gulf of Mexico.

Thus, the first works of construction begin on lands that previously belonged to an old army base located next to the airport. The works in the base were completed in 1962, but still until the following decade, the administrative and organizational part would remain in Boulder, Colorado, in the NCAR headquarters. In October that year although the base has not been officially inaugurated, the first flights of the project Stratoscope II were made and finally on August 13, 1963 the first launch takes place. Sadly, althought it was a normal flight, the termination system failed so the balloon and payload were lost on the Pacific Ocean. This was the formal inauguration the new base wich wiould be named as National Scientific Balloon Flight Station.

In 1964, the base already counted with a paved launch area, which viewed from the air seemed a crab whose legs were a series of ways oriented in different directions (see image above) to allow the extension of the flight train depending on the direction from which the wind blew. Also that year a remarkable improvement in the telemetry equipment takes place and in the command control system wich is digitized. Also two movable telemetry stations were added to the station setup extending the range of the flying balloons. The following year a vehicle specially designed makes its appearance in the base: "Tiny Tim". It was constructed to handle the scientific payloads at the moment of the launching so they don't receive blows or hit the ground in that critical phase. It was the first vehicle specially constructed to assist in the process of launch a balloon.

The beginning of the 1970 decade, was a very busy time for the base with two annual campaigns, one between April and May and the other between September and October. During this time the town filled of scientists and technicians arrived from the four corners of the country and the world, being a stimulus for the local economy. It is also the time when arose the necessity to build a larger launch pad, to adecuate handle the larger balloons with volumes near the million cubic meters. This new pad (the ample circular area in the scheme above) was built in 1973 and consists of a circular paved area with a diameter near 150 meters surrounded by another circular area of grass of almost 300, which allows to launch balloons wich today have not yet been constructed (3.000.000 m3) or to carry out up to two simultaneous launches. That same year the station is again renamed as National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF).

In 1986, the site started to be managed by the New Mexico State University (NMSU) with successive renewals of the contract during the following 28 years. Since 2014, the facility is managed by Orbital ATK.

Today the base has all the infrastructure necessary to operate balloons of any size with areas for the integration of scientific gondolas, buildings of storage, hangars, a complete weather station with three meteorologists full-time, and 2 airplanes Cessna of pursuit and air support. Recently the technology of the control center has been improved, allowing to analyze in real time the scientific and flight information from the balloons in flight, not mattering from where they have been launched.

Although in the first years, flights were made during the winter months , these have been prohibited by NASA due to the risk that balloons move towards populated areas in the Gulf of Mexico or slip into air traffic corridors. Instead in these months campaigns are conducted from Fort Sumner in New Mexico, another launch base wich in the latest years have surpassed in number of flights those carried out from Palestine.

In February 2006 the installation was renamed for the second time, and now is called Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), in memory of the victims of the space shuttle wich crashed when returning from the space in 2003.

Since its inauguration 50 years ago, the Palestine base carried out more than 1500 stratospheric balloon launches, being one of the most active facility of the U.S.