BOREALIS Programs
Balloon Outreach, Research, Exploration and Landscape Imaging System
BOREALIS is MSGC's stratospheric ballooning program. In the program, students from a variety of majors work together to conceive, design and build payloads that are flown up to 100,000 feet - the edge of space. BOREALIS has two complete ballooning programs at Montana State University and the Salish Kootenai College. Other MSGC Affiliate campuses develop science and engineering payloads to fly in coordination with the two university programs.
Follow a flight live at: Balloon Flight Tracker
Getting involved!
MSU Open House:
Every Thursday
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm during the academic year
At the BOREALIS lab
All students are welcome to come to the BOREALIS lab during open house, regardless of major, year in school, or experience. Students can tour the lab, or even get involved working on a project.
Location
150 West Lincoln Street
Bozeman, MT 59718
Marsh Modular 2
45°39'52.2"N 111°03'54.7"W
Internships and Apprenticeships:
Learn about how to apply for a BOREALIS internship or apprenticeship: research opportunities
Highlights
Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP)
A project lead by the BOREALIS lab to stream live footage of the October 14, 2023 annular eclipses and the April 8, 2024 total solar eclipses. With 53 teams and over 750 participant from all over the nation taking part in this project.
Night flight
On October 24th 2024 the first Night Flight in the BOREALIS labs history was launched. Equipt with a new beacon payload, the balloon was released at dusk.
Current Balloon System
The flight October 24th 2024.
Previous Balloon System
Pictures
From Balloon Payload
A Picture taken from a balloon payload during the NEBP project.
From Launch Days
Inflating the balloon at dusk for the October 24th 2024 Night Flight
People Filling the balloon with helium for the August 8th 2024 flight.
A balloon being release for the flight of June 10th 2024.
The ground station team during the eclipse project
Preparing a balloon for launch near Livingston