Launch and premature end for the ULDB balloon flight (6/12/2006)
Kiruna (Sweden).- After several delays due to the bad weather, the
operations at the swedish base of ESRANGE to launch the second balloon
from the transatlantic long duration campaign, started on the night of
June 11th and ended with the succesfull launch of the balloon on June
12th at 2:06 utc. At left we can see an image taken trough the webcam
mounted in a nearby hill and captured in the exact moment of the
balloon release.
The initial ascent phase take the balloon to the east, and after
reaching flight altitude, returned to the weste course as expected, but
after a while and by still unknown reasons the flight was terminated
meanwhile the craft was still over swedish territory.
Continues in http://stratocat.com.ar/indexe.html
Official start for the Svalbard launch campaign (6/12/2006)
Longyearbyen.- With the arrival to the Svalbard Islands -at the gates
of the north pole- of the scientific teams, started the preparations
for the 2006 Arctic LDB Program Development campaign. This year's
program includes only one balloon to be flown and as in the precedent
campaigns, the airstrip of the Longyearbyen Air****t will be used as
launch pad. The first possible date for flight was set on June 10th but
bad weather still prevented the launch. A new launch attempt was
forecasted for June 12th in the evening.
This yearly campaigns started in 2003, in the framework of a project
for the development of a European long duration balloon program and
research center in the northern polar region. The task is been carried
out by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Norway's Andoya Rocket Range,
and one of the goals is to mirror the Nasa's Antarctic long duration
balloon program.
Continues in http://stratocat.com.ar/indexe.html
--
Luis Eduardo Pacheco
StratoCat - (english version: http://stratocat.com.ar/indexe.html
)
Historical recopilation project on the use of stratospheric balloons in
the scientific research, the military field and the aerospace activity.
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