Scientific Ballooning was a bimonthly newsletter published by the National Center for Atmospheric Research, in the decade of 1960's dedicated to the advancement of the role of ballooning in atmospheric and astrophysical research. It was intended primarily to acquaint scientists who used balloons (or potential users of them) with their advantages and faults, their limitations and future capabilities. In the cover was an image of ''Le Geant" a balloon built the Felix Nadar, Paris photographer, in 1863, that the editors choose as an indication that not all great ballooning achievements are exactly new.

Each issue included a listing of planned balloon flights and a summary of flight results. It described new materials, balloon designs, flight techniques, and recovery methods. Also mcontained the latest information on the status of safety regulations impossed to the activity by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA).

Also were included short articles on ballooning both from users and manufacturers, information about symposia and technical meetings, and articles on overseas launch campaigns.

The first issue was published in November 1961, and maintained the bimonthly periodicity until issue Nº 8 (March 1963) when started to appear in March, May, July, September and November each year. This periodicity would be maintained until issue Nº 20 (September 1965) when started to appear quarterly.

The last issue (Nº 21) was published in November 1965.

The newsletter was absorbed by a new publication of the NCAR: "Facilities for Atmospheric Research" whose first issue was published in the Fall 1966 and also had a quarterly periodicity. Almost each issue contained articles and news on scientific ballooning. The "Balloon Flight Record and Scheduled Balloon Flights" log (which appeared on each issue of "Scientific Ballooning") was temporarily incorporated into it before being split out into its own publication. This log was published until Issue Nº 44 in Fall 1972.

"Facilities..." was replaced by another publication named "Atmospheric Technology" which included fewer articles on ballooning than their predecesors. The only exception was the issue Nº 5 published in March 1974, devoted entirely to scientific ballooning.