ALTADENA, CA – Global Aerospace Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a $500,000 Phase II contract from NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) to develop a revolutionary concept for networks of stratospheric balloons. Networks of superpressure balloons can help scientists to study many major environmental problems. Changes involving tropical circulation and radiation balances, polar ozone depletion, and global ocean productivity could be easily studied from a global or regional network of instrumented balloons. These networks could assist in pollution monitoring, hurricane forecasting and tracking, and global circulation studies. As the cost of satellite and aircraft operations continues to increase, the need for a less expensive system becomes more apparent.