  Below the knee in the cosmic ray spectrum, balloon and spacecraft experiments
offer the capability of direct composition and energy measurements on the
primary particles. A major difficulty is obtaining enough exposure to extend
the range of direct measurements sufficiently high in energy to permit overlap
with ground-based observations. Presently, balloon and space measurements
extend only up to ~100 TeV, well below the range of ground-based experiments.
The prospect of Ultra-Long Duration Balloon missions offers the promise of
multiple long flights that can build up exposure. The status of balloon
measurements to measure the high energy proton and nuclear composition and
spectrum is reviewed, and the statistical considerations involved in searching
for a steepening in the spectrum are discussed. Given the very steeply falling
spectrum, it appears unlikely that balloon experiments will be able to extend
the range of direct measurements beyond 1000 TeV any time in the near future.
Especially given the recent suggestions from KASCADE that the proton spectrum
steepens only at 4000-5000 TeV, the chance of detecting the knee with direct
measurements of protons to iron on balloons is not likely to occur without
significant increases in the payload and flight duration capabilities of high
altitude balloons.
