Participants: 6-12th grade

Overview: Schools are invited to join NASA in its mission to advance space exploration and enhance our knowledge of Earth. If you are in 6-12th grade at a U.S. public, private, or charter school – including those in U.S. territories – your challenge is to team up with your schoolmates and develop an experiment idea for this year’s NASA TechRise flight vehicle – the high-altitude balloon!

The high-altitude balloon flight will offer more than four hours of flight time at 70,000 feet and provide exposure to Earth’s atmosphere plus views of our planet. 

A total of 60 winning teams will be selected to build their proposed experiment. Each winning team will be awarded:

• $1,500 to build their experiment

• A flight box in which to build it

• An assigned spot to test their experiment on a NASA-sponsored balloon flight

Winning teams will also receive technical support during the experiment build phase from Future Engineers advisors, who will help students learn the skills they need to turn their experiment idea into reality. No experience is necessary to join the NASA TechRise Challenge! The steps below will help your team plan and submit your experiment idea.