Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility

NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) in Palestine, Texas, provides complete scientific-balloon operations and engineering support, including balloon inflation, launch, tracking, payload recovery, telecommand and data retrieval for NASA and research communities worldwide. NASA says the facility has launched more than 1,700 balloons and supports astronomy, atmospheric, heliophysics and technology experiments; CSBF is NASA-owned and managed by Peraton under the Balloon Program Office at Wallops Flight Facility. The Palestine site is just west of Palestine Municipal Airport at 1510 FM Road 3224, Palestine, Texas 75803. For the published 2026 Palestine campaign, only visitors approved for the campaign may enter; visitors must be U.S. citizens with valid approved identification, enroll in NASA’s EVAMS system, check in at the Visitor Center, park in the designated east-side area and walk to the covered viewing area. Building access is not allowed. Visitor and launch arrangements are campaign-specific, so confirm the live CSBF schedule before travel.