With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations.

On August 16, 1960, U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger went up in an open gondola hanging from a polyethylene balloon. At a height of 102,800 feet -- a new altitude record -- Capt.

One of the episodes in the show is “The Hanging Balloons,” based on a 60-page short story Ito wrote about hideous-looking, balloon-like human heads appearing in the sky. People who spot them ...