This mural for the administration building foyer at the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, Texas, shows all phases of the flight of a typical 40,000,000– to 60,000,000–cubic foot scientific helium balloon — from inflation, to launch, to ascension to 120,000 feet, at which altitude the helium filling the balloon expands approximately to the volume of the Houston Astrodome. Images from the CSBF facility show the human actors involved in the massive undertaking of a balloon launch — a technician overseeing the inflation of a balloon surrounded by the characteristic pattern of cosmic microwave background radiation; the CSBF staff in a staged shot aboard Tiny Tim, a launch vehicle; staff monitoring a flight from the control room. At right, a satellite image of the facility forms a backdrop for the CSBF logo, a stylized balloon curve containing a silhouette of the Space Shuttle Columbia, the base's namesake. The shuttle is surrounded by seven stars, each representing an astronaut killed in the Columbia's February 2003 explosion over East Texas and northwest Louisiana.