The NOAA frost point hygrometer (FPH) record at Boulder, which began in 1980, is the longest continuous timeseries of upper atmospheric water vapor measurements in the world, and the NOAA FPH record at Lauder, New Zealand, which began in 2004, is the second longest continuous record. The NOAA FPH has also been launched monthly from Hilo, Hawaii since 2010. These measurements have been used for satellite calibration/validation and identifying drifts in satellite records, critical for trend analysis. The FPH makes extremely accurate and precise measurements of the dew point or frost point temperature, and empirical relationships between the dew point or frost point and the saturation water vapor pressure can be used to calculate the water vapor mixing ratio to a high degree of accuracy. Recent improvements to the FPH instrument, balloon payload, and data telemetry have successfully reduced green-house gas emissions and solid waste from each launch, and increased the amount of data collected. The new dual antenna reception system concurrently utilizes two types of omnidirectional antennas that offer complete coverage in any direction or elevation angle without the need for manual adjustment and provide a redundant data source that is used to replace unusable or missing data from the first antenna. The Sonde-Pi receiver provides GML with a portable hardware alternative to previous software-based systems that can easily be used in a permanent installation (operating at several sites globally) or on a mobile platform. The FPH design and the SkySonde software have also been modified to facilitate the switch from trifluoromethane (R-23) to dry ice and alcohol and liquid nitrogen cryogens, which have a much lower global warming potential. Other smaller innovations have reduced the number of batteries used in the balloon payload and its total solid waste.