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1961 ICEF Cosmic Ray Balloon Launch Brawley CA 4 Original Kodak Photos NASA AR Hogan Estate
Original vintage black-and-white photographs documenting the November 19, 1961 International Cooperative Emulsion Flights (ICEF) scientific balloon launch from Brawley, California. Printed on original KODAK photographic paper. Vintage condition with age-related handling, edge/corner wear, surface marks, and other imperfections visible in the photographs. Please review all images carefully for exact condition.
This historic image shows launch operations for a massive high-altitude scientific balloon carrying a nuclear-emulsion cosmic-ray experiment. The ICEF program was an international research effort designed to expose photographic nuclear emulsions to high-energy cosmic radiation in the upper atmosphere.
According to the original accompanying typed caption, the November 19, 1961 flight carried an approximately 2,200-pound payload containing 81 liters of nuclear emulsion. The balloon reached approximately 110,000 feet and remained in level flight for about 38 hours before the payload was recovered near Hickory, North Carolina. Contemporary research identifies this as an International Cooperative Emulsion Flights mission associated with the work of University of Chicago physicist Marcel Schein.
The reverse includes handwritten archival annotations identifying the image as a “Brawley Launch” and referencing the International Cooperative Emulsion Flights program and Professor M. Schein of the University of Chicago. An original typed descriptive caption is also present.
Provenance: From the estate of NASA journalist Alfred Robert “A.R.” Hogan.
A fascinating piece of early-1960s aerospace and high-altitude scientific research history, with strong appeal to collectors of space-race photography, scientific ballooning, cosmic-ray research, Cold War science, and vintage aviation or aerospace ephemera.
Item pictured is what you will receive. No stock photography is used.
Keywords: ICEF, International Cooperative Emulsion Flights, cosmic rays, cosmic ray research, scientific balloon, high altitude balloon, Brawley California, 1961, nuclear emulsion, Marcel Schein, University of Chicago, Office of Naval Research, NSF, Raven Industries, space race, aerospace history, scientific photography, vintage Kodak photograph, A.R. Hogan, NASA journalist estate
