Florida space balloon factory named after scientist with ties to Sulphur Springs

Seely credited with balloon reinforcement tape and modern fishing line inventions

What might a small high-altitude weather balloon manufacturer once located in Sulphur Springs, Texas have in common with the state-of-the-art Space Perspective SpaceBalloon Factory located on the Florida space coast? A lot, actually, and the connection comes down to people.

In her early years, Mitzi Giles, now head of manufacturing and development at the new SpaceBalloon Factory, received training under the late Loren G. Seely, a chemical engineer with the former Winzen/ Raven Industries plants in Sulphur Springs. Giles’ skill and ambition within the industry led her to the Space Perspective Company, home of the world’s only carbon-neutral spaceflight experience, and where she is now part of the unique expert crew.

On Aug. 22, 2023, a ribbon-cutting was held as the Seely SpaceBalloon Factory was named for the late innovator, with Loren’s widow, Ann Seely and daughters in attendance alongside Giles. Thus, Seely was honored posthumously during the dedication for his role in modern balloon manufacturing innovations.

Seely's career in research development began in the 1960s, when he and Ann relocated to Sulphur Springs, Texas, where the aeronautical engineer Otto Winzen had relocated his balloon manufacturing plant.

Seely's 43-year career at Winzen had him working to improve products and techniques invented by his employer. Winzen was an early innovator of scientific ballooning, introducing new materials and construction methods, and provoking great advances in that field. One of Winzen's 1950s designs, Project Manhigh, was designed to test what extended exposure to the near-space environment might do to a human passenger, and was developed in anticipation of human spaceflight.

Today, Space Perspective's Seely SpaceBalloon Factory will offer the world’s first luxury space experience with the Neptune Spaceship.

Here are some facts about the Seely SpaceBalloon Factory:

• The facility is 700 feet long and encompasses 49,000 square feet

• When fully inflated, space balloons can fit an entire American football stadium inside of them.

• Space balloons have been safely flown to over 100,000 feet with payloads heavier than our Spaceship Neptune capsule more than a thousand times by NASA, others, and SpaceBalloon team members.

• Because space balloons are recyclable, the company is able to reuse them for various manufacturing and merchandising needs — and will provide excess material to external upcycle partners.

• The factory is dedicated to Loren G. Seely, the late ballooning scientist and innovator, whom Space Perspective's lead for manufacturing and development, Giles, trained under. Seely was a materials and design specialist, a polymer chemist (dealing with structure and synthesis of chemicals and chemical and physical properties of polymers and macromolecules) and a Lifetime Achievement Award recipient from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), he is credited with innovations like balloon reinforcement tape and modern fishing line.