A first-hand account of the launch of NASA’s LADEE lunar probe

Scale models of the balloons used by NASA were on display.

Keith Koehler is a busy man. Koehler is the PR director for NASA’s Wallops Island flight facility. Nestled in the flatlands of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, Wallops is home to several launchpads, three active runways, and a multitude of R&D buildings. But this week he is busy not because of the facilities themselves, but because he’s expecting up to 20,000 visitors and guests to descend on this tiny facility. For the first time, it’s being used to send hardware away from the Earth.

Softspoken yet assured, Koehler has handled thousands of inquires from the public, led the media on tours of the Minotaur V launch site, and introduced visiting dignitaries and VIPs to the project directors, all with aplomb. Our first day out had us introduced to their high altitude balloon research team. I was amazed at the number of highly successful missions launched from such remote places as McMurdo station and the Marshall Islands, done for a fraction of the cost of a conventional rocket launch.

“They are an order of magnitude cheaper” he says. These super balloons can fly longer and carry larger payloads for pennies on the dollar—they’re cheap enough that many of the super balloons have carried private experiments for universities. The balloons can also be used again and again; several on display at the site have made dozens of flights. NASA is also big on recycling other technology to keep costs down. Their sounding rockets are made from retired military hardware (sans warheads, I’ve been assured). Built like LEGO, NASA stacks disparate parts into single rockets that fulfill specific needs, whether it’s bringing private research to near earth orbit, or flying on official NASA business.