National Air and Space Museum Archives

Stratospheric Ballooning (Skyhook) Collection

Summary

Collection ID:
NASM.1993.0050
Creators:
United States. Office of Naval Research
Dates:
[ca. 1940s-1960s]
Languages:
English
.
Physical Description:
2.18 Cubic feet
(2 records center boxes)
Repository:

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
This collection consists of photographs, correspondence, reports, clippings and press kits, mostly centering on the following ballooning topics: Project Skyhook, Project Helios, Stratoscope I and II and Stratolab. There is also material on general ballooning events, the Vanguard satellite and the VTOL.

Biographical / Historical

Biographical / Historical
The stratospheric balloon flights of Auguste Piccard in 1931-1932 changed the way people thought about conquering the stratosphere and began a race to the stratosphere via the balloon which rivaled the race to the moon in the 1960s. The ballooning of the 1930s, including Auguste and Jean Piccards' work and the Explorer flights, led to Project Helios during the 1940s. Project Helios, in turn, led to Skyhook, Stratolab and modern scientific ballooning. These modern projects, i.e., Project Skyhook, allowed longer look times than sounding rockets and were far more economical. Furthermore, they were valuable in obtaining data for both scientific missions and military interests.

Administration

Immediate Source of Acquisition
Office of Naval Research, Gift, 1993, 1993-0050, Public Domain

Using the Collection

Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Use
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

More Information

General

General
NASMrev

Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Rockets (Aeronautics) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rockets, Sounding Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vertically rising aircraft Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Balloons Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Balloons, Sounding Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stratoscope I Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stratoscope II Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Stratolab Program Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Project Vanguard Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Press releases Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Clippings Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
United States. Office of Naval Research Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Project Skyhook Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Project Helios Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Vanguard (Artificial satellite) Corporate Name Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
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