---
title: "These Scientists Want to Launch Satellites From Steam Balloons"
description: "Using steam-filled balloons to bring satellites into orbit could prove much cheaper and more efficient than launching rockets."
date: "2019-08-22"
modified: "2019-08-22"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/launch-satellites-steam-balloons"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "Balloons"
  - "satellites"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
---

# These Scientists Want to Launch Satellites From Steam Balloons

![Using steam-filled balloons to bring satellites into orbit could prove much cheaper and more efficient than launching rockets.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/launch-satellites-steam-balloons.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: PIRO4D\</em\>*

## Balloon Ride

Scientists are working on a new low-cost, efficient way to get satellites up into space.

Instead of launching rockets from the ground, a team from the Finnish Meteorology Institute is investigating whether satellites could be lifted up into orbit through steam-filled balloons and launched from there, [according to *SciTech Europa*](<https://www.scitecheuropa.eu/steam-balloons-could-be-used-to-launch-satellites/96701/>). While they haven't actually tested the idea yet, computer simulations suggest that these steam [balloon launches](<https://futurism.com/arizona-space-balloon-set-fly-edge-space>) could feasibly change the way scientists move equipment into orbit.

## Gentle Lift

The idea of launching a satellite with a balloon isn't new. But past iterations used balloons filled with hydrogen or helium, both of which are more expensive than steam — and hydrogen in particular is potentially more disastrous given how easily it combusts.

Replacing those gases with steam should, if the computer simulations are to be believed, give any passengers a smooth ride to the outer reaches of the atmosphere before the rocket takes off from an altitude much closer to orbit, according to *StiTech Europa*. Once it lands, it will be ready to be used again, no environmentally-devastating rocket fuel required.

**READ MORE:** [Steam balloons could be used to launch satellites](<https://www.scitecheuropa.eu/steam-balloons-could-be-used-to-launch-satellites/96701/>) \[*SciTech Europa*\]

**More on space balloons:** *[DARPA's Balloons Could Hover at the Edge of Space Indefinitely](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/stratospheric-balloons-darpa>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)