NASA has confirmed it will return to Wānaka for its Super Pressure Balloon (SPB) campaign in 2025.

NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility communications office chief Jeremy Eggers told the Wānaka App the agency has two Wānaka Airport flights planned between March and June.

“The missions for this campaign are focused around cutting edge science and expanding the capability of the Super Pressure Balloon systems,” Jeremy said.

“With these missions, we continue our work to test and perfect the Super Pressure Balloon technology with the goal of long duration flight (upwards of 100 days) at stable float altitudes in the stratosphere through the day/night cycle.”

NASA’s first launch at Wānaka Airport took place in 2015.

The NASA team returned for additional launch attempts in 2016, 2017, 2022 and 2023, all of which were successful apart from the 2022 launch.

During its 2023 visit two SPBs were successfully launched, in April and May.

Jeremy said the team was looking forward to returning.

“Wanaka is an ideal location for conducting these flights, and we are immensely thankful to all our New Zealand partners for their support,” Jeremy said.

Wānaka Airport said it was “delighted to be welcoming them [NASA] back” in a statement on Facebook this morning (Friday November 15).

PHOTO: NASA