NASA To Fly Four Scientific Balloons In Esrange, Area Without Nights

NASA's scientific balloon launch illustration (photo: Doc. NASA)

JAKARTA In mid-May, NASA will be holding a Long-Term Scientific Balloon program in Sweden. During its program, NASA will fly four scientific balloons for science missions. The balloon that will be part of this technological demonstration will be launched from the Esrange Space Center, a facility owned by the Swedish Space Corporation. The facility is located in the Arctic northern circle and its program will last for a month. The four balloons to be launched in this program are the High-Energy Light Isotope eXperiment (HELIX), the Balloon Observation of Microburst Scales (BLOOMS), SUNRISE-III, and XL-Calibur. It is not explained whether the four balloons will be launched simultaneously. HELIX will seek out the age of cosmic rays in the Milky Way galaxy, while BLOOMS is flown to reach the expected altitude. Meanwhile, SUNRISE-III will take high-resolution imaging and XL-Calibur will observe a sample of black holes. Meanwhile, NASA's Balloon Program Director Andrew Hamilton said that the balloon missions they will launch are a cooperation program with the Swedish Space. According to Hamilton, this collaboration is important because the launch site is needed by NASA.

"Our partnership with the Swedish Space Corporation is invaluable for NASA and the scientific community as it allows us to use their high-quality facilities in Esrange," Hamilton said, quoted from NASA's official blog. Esrange is a facility owned by Swedish Space located in the northernmost part of Sweden. This location will maintain NASA's zero-pressure balloon performance as this area experiences persistent day-to-day afternoon throughout the summer. "The launch distance location and the stratosphere wind allow excellent flight conditions to collect scientific data for days as balloons cross from Sweden to northern Canada," Hamilton explained.