QUESTION:
How much did all the electronic equipment cost to purchase and install?

ANSWER from Steve Patterson on Oct.17,1995:
You really asked a tough question, but I'll try to come up with an answer.

First, the KAO has been flying for over 20 years, and alot of equipment is
almost that old. Much of the original hardware has been replaced over the years 
with more modern stuff. I have only been flying on the KAO for a couple of
years so most of the equipment has been around here longer than I have. Also,
there is alot of equipment we use that stays on the ground and does not fly on
the airplane, but we cannot do our job without it. The astronomers also bring
their own equipment to interface with ours, and the actual configuration of
things varies from flight to flight.

For the "Live from the Statosphere" television show, we needed the ACTS
satellite antenna, which cost about $500,000, and we also used about $100,000
worth of video cameras and equipment onboard the plane, but we borrowed and/or
rented most of that. We also borrowed a Ring Laser Gyro navigation system to
interface with the ACTS antenna; whose cost around $150,000. We leased an
airborne telephone system, and had to buy some pieces of an intercom system and
some computer/network hardware and the satellite guys from JPL brought some of
their own equipment. I would say we had around one million dollars worth of
hardware on the airplane just of extra stuff to make the broadcast possible.