Hi, Chris. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me.
So you're part of NASA's Balloon Program.
What is the difference between a NASA Scientific Balloon versus
a regular hot air balloon?
Good question.
So, hot air balloons are air filled and the air is heated
to create the buoyancy of the lift that gives them flight.
Generally, they float at a couple thousand feet
and they go up and down in a matter of hours.
Scientific Balloons, on the other hand, are quite different.
So, our largest balloons can fit a football field inside their equator,
and they can fly for much longer.
So, payload capacity is about 8,000 pounds -
several SUVs. The duration can be up to five
or six weeks at a time, and the altitudes can be up to 160,000 feet,
about four or five times the height of a commercial airliner.
Wow. What a difference.
Yeah, that's incredible.
And you launch all over the globe.
So you launch from New Mexico
in the US, New Zealand, and even McMurdo Station in Antarctica.
Why do you launch from all those different places?
In short, we go where the science needs us to go.
Some scientists need northern hemisphere.
Science for galaxies and star formations.
That's why we go to Sweden.
Same thing in the southern hemisphere.
That's why we go to Antarctica.
Most missions need some kind of trial or test system,
so they'll fly from New Mexico to prove their science or
or even just collect science at a shorter duration.
And then for missions that are a little more risky,
we'll go out to PMRF in Hawaii.
So can you describe to me what launch days like?
it's an incredible feeling. Right?
So, you see the balloon be released.
You hear the rustle of fabric and the rush of the wind
as it stands up. You see the balloon be released
from the vehicle and ascend.
And it's just - it just gives you chills every time you watch it.
It's a really great feeling.
That sounds incredible.
So how many of these balloon experiments have been Sun focused or eclipse focused?
So, about 8 to 10% of our portfolio is heliophysics missions.
One of the ones that stands out in my mind is one
I got to see launch in 2019 from New Mexico.
It's called The BITSE Mission,
and it was looking at the corona, or the kind of the outer edge of the Sun,
and looking at how that behaves under different conditions.
That sounds amazing.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Thanks again for having me.