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NASA Launches First Scientific Balloon of Fort Sumner Campaign [1]

['Jamie Adkins', 'Nasa Goddard Digital Lead']

Date: 2026-08-22  

NASA Launches First Scientific Balloon of Fort Sumner Campaign

A scientific balloon carrying the Salter mission, a technology test flight, launched Aug. 22, 2026. This was the first flight of NASA’s 2026 Fort Sumner campaign. NASA/Kevin Dillon

The Salter Test Flight launched at 8:31 a.m. MDT (10:31 a.m. EDT) Saturday, Aug. 22 from the agency’s balloon launch facility in Fort Sumner, marking the first successful scientific balloon flight of the campaign.

The balloon and payload reached a float altitude of around 123,000 feet, and flew for a total of 4 hours, 8 minutes. The flight tested hardware for future balloon missions. A piggyback mission for Cubes in Space carried around 100 tiny payloads with small experiments designed by students ages 11-18.

A scientific balloon carrying the Salter mission, a technology test flight, launched Aug. 22, 2026. This was the first flight of NASA’s 2026 Fort Sumner campaign. NASA/Kevin Dillon

The Cubes in Space payloads is attached to the side of the Salter test flight balloon gondola Aug. 22, 2026. The payloads launched as a piggyback mission on the test flight during NASA’s 2026 Fort Sumner campaign. NASA/Kevin Dillon

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[1] Url: https://www.nasa.gov/blogs/wallops/2026/08/22/nasa-launches-first-scientific-balloon-of-fort-sumner-campaign/

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