2000 Ballooner Lift-Off at NASA
All photos copyright 2000 (c) BCPW, Inc. New Image Marketing
The 2000 Shuttle Atlantis Balloon Lifts Off at the
NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston
Click on any thumbnail to see the enlarged picture
Some of these are quite large, so if you are on a dial-up modem,
they make take some time to download, but the wait will be well worth it!
The Ballooner Lift Off at NASA is a multi day event. It is a complete festival that features the largest balloon rally in the state of Texas and one of the largest ones in the U.S.. There are almost 100 balloons that show and compete. Additionally there are hang gliders, parachutists and rocket launch demonstrations. The first evening features a sunset lift off and then a ballooner glow. The next day starts with a target flight where the balloon pilots select a starting point and try to fly as close to an appointed target.
At this event, the target appropriately was a scaled down space shuttle. One of the balloons attempting the manauver was a full sized mock up of the shuttle 165' tall. The pilots had two tasks. The first was to reach a square target area and drop a marker OUTSIDE of it while coming as close to it as possible. This are for competition points. These are the objects with the red ribbons you can see them dropping in the photos. The other part of the competition was for the pilot to get a hula-hoop onto the point of the space shuttle marker. This is for $5000!
You can see the pilots trying to steer the balloons on the wind drafts so they can accomplish this and you can watch them as they attempt to hit the target point. The festival then goes on for two more days, but these photos just highlite the first two days. The Johnson Spaceflight Center then opened its doors to 20 of its buildings to the masses with volunteers guiding everyone through.
Enjoy the photos!