Tonight at 02.36 (UTC) the balloon born payload LEE was successfully launched from Esrange Space Center. It reached a height of 43.5 km wich is a record with such a heavy payload - about 600 kg (payload and flight train). The balloon is now floating at around 41 km and will land in Canada in about five days.

LEE, lead by scientists from the University of Delaware, will measure propagation of charged cosmic ray particles from Local Interstellar Space to Earth and the magnetic fields importance in propagation of the cosmic ray. Read more about LEE here. 

This balloon campaign is a continuation of a NASA long-duration balloon flight programme at northern latitudes that started in the summer of 2005. By conducting balloon flights from the Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden to North America, flight of up to 4-6 days can be obtained, an opportunity that is highly required by scientists within the field of astronomy. 

Colombia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF) has the overall operational responsibility for the campaign activities and they will be supported by a particular project manager and a launch team from the Swedish Space Corporation.

The next balloon, AESOP, will be ready for launch on Friday May 22.

Press images here.
Follow the flight in "LDB Relayed Real Time GPS Data" here.

For further information contact
Tomas Hedqvist, project manager at Esrange Space Center, SSC
tomas.hedqvist@ssc.se
+46 980 720 16