EUSO-Balloon is a pathfinder for JEM-EUSO, the Extreme Universe Space\ud Observatory which is to be hosted on-board the International Space\ud Station. As JEM-EUSO is designed to observe Ultra-High Energy Cosmic\ud Rays (UHECR)-induced Extensive Air Showers (EAS) by detecting their\ud ultraviolet light tracks ``from above{''}, EUSO-Balloon is a\ud nadir-pointing UV telescope too. With its Fresnel Optics and\ud Photo-Detector Module, the instrument monitors a 50 km(2) ground surface\ud area in a wavelength band of 290-430 nm, collecting series of images at\ud a rate of 400,000 frames/sec. The objectives of the balloon demonstrator\ud are threefold: a) perform a full end-to-end test of a JEM-EUSO prototype\ud consisting of all the main subsystems of the space experiment, b)\ud measure the effective terrestrial UV background, with a spatial and\ud temporal resolution relevant for JEM-EUSO. c) detect tracks of\ud ultraviolet light from near space for the first time. The latter is a\ud milestone in the development of UHECR science, paving the way for any\ud future space-based UHECR observatory. On August 25, 2014, EUSO-Balloon\ud was launched from Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Base (Ontario, Canada)\ud by the balloon division of the French Space Agency CNES. From a float\ud altitude of 38 km, the instrument operated during the entire\ud astronomical night, observing UV-light from a variety of ground-covers\ud and from hundreds of simulated EASs, produced by flashers and a laser\ud during a two-hour helicopter under-flight

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