NASA's Antarctic Balloon Flights: Exploring the Space Between Stars

NASA is launching its annual Antarctic Long Duration Balloon Campaign, which includes three scientific balloon flights from the LDB Camp near McMurdo Station, Antarctica. The campaign aims to break NASA's heavy-lift, long-duration balloon flight record and will support a total of five missions, including the GUSTO mission to map a large part of the Milky Way galaxy. Other missions will measure cosmic-ray electrons, test solar panels for long-duration flights, and measure natural background sound in the stratosphere. The zero-pressure balloons used in the campaign can only fly long-duration missions during the constant daylight of summer in polar regions.