Esrange Space Centre launches largest balloon to date
Esrange Space Centre has successfully launched its largest stratospheric balloon to date, with the supersized research balloon able to rise to new heights.
The 1.7 million cubic metre balloon launched from northern Sweden is currently en route to North America and is part of a NASA research initiative to study energised particles close to the Earth’s poles. When the balloon reaches its cruising altitude, decreased pressure will inflate its structure fully, making it the largest of its kind – with few sites in the world able to facilitate launches of this magnitude.
The flight – higher than any NASA stratospheric balloon flight to date – will qualify this size of balloon for higher altitudes than 150,000ft, above which conditions become optimal for studying various radiations otherwise blocked by the earth’s atmosphere.
“The 60 [million cubic feet] balloon is of high importance to the scientific community,” explained Andrew Hamilton, director of NASA’s balloon programme office. “Qualifications of this balloon will allow NASA to continue to stretch the boundaries of what we can provide to the scientific community”.
A first-of-its-kind experiment onboard the balloon also aims to take the first high-resolution images of X-ray radiation from so-called electron microbursts which only occur at certain places in the Earth’s magnetic field. This makes the launch site in northern Sweden especially appropriate. The payload is designated BOOMS (Balloon Observation of Microburst Scales).
“Esrange is a unique asset for international research at the very highest level,” added Lennart Poromaa, SCC president of science services and site manager at Esrange Space Center. “We have now reached the crescendo of our balloon bonanza with the launch of the largest balloon ever. This shows that we are among the best in the world at what we do”.
