Every spring in Palestine, Texas, the wide-open fields around NASA’s Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility fill with students and faculty from across Louisiana. The 2026 LaACES campaign consisted of 11 payloads that were designed and built by nine Louisiana university teams — Louisiana State University, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana State, McNeese State, Loyola University, and Southern University, as well as and one high school team, St. Joseph’s Academy, during the weeklong event. Group photo of the 2026 LaACES program participants gathered outside the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility. Funded by NASA’s National Space Grant College and Fellowship program, LaACES is a statewide program of the Louisiana Space Grant Consortium. For these Louisiana students, watching their payload rise into the sky is more than a technical milestone — it is a defining moment, a spark that turns curiosity into possibility.