The weeklong festivities include fireworks and concerts and showcase all manner of dazzling displays, from a special shape rodeo to lighted nighttime " balloon glows, " but the climax is the handful of spectacular mass ascensions in which all participants take to the sky in two waves.
Radar, or radio waves, sweep the sky every 12 seconds transmitting images of approaching aircraft that can then be viewed by controllers onscreen in a series of centers spanning the nation.
TDS-1 payloads include instruments to track ships and monitor the sea surface for freak waves, and even a self-destruct "sail" that will pull the spacecraft out of the sky at the end of its mission.