12-Aug-2021: Launch day!

Update 1:00: And we did it, and it flew!

The last few hours were intense, no time for blog. I will sleep a bit and try to be there at ~ 6 am when the recovered payload may arrive.

But in short: after some small problems with the equipment, and some delay due to strong wind, the balloon was successfully launched at 11 pm. It will land some time after 4 am, and the recovery will hopefully take only 2-3 hours. Some of the team members stay overnight to communicate with the flight, and others will be there at recovery because some of the measurements must be done immediately.

The launch itself was very impressive: the balloon is huge and powerful, and the launch team worked well coordinated and professional. It was a way bigger action than I expected, and it is humbling that all this effort was done for us, for obtaining some stratospheric air for our science. We better do really good science with it!

Image from the launch pad: on the left is the gondola already hanging from the auxiliary balloon, held by launch team members, moments before taking off.

Update 17:45: Confirmed, we launch the balloon tonight!

Today is the launch day!

We had a meteo briefing before lunch, and it all looks good: meteo,  calculated trajectories, recovery conditions. There will be a meteo briefing at 5:30 pm for final confirmation, and then the countdown.

Till then, we make the final preparations: the cryosampler is precooled with liquid nitrogen, the aircores are filled with fill-gas, the automatic sampling programs adjusted to the final trajectories.

Many things will happen in the next hours, I will update this post as things come.

Almost final preparation: Andreas filling the cryo-sampler with liquid nitrogen for pre-cooling.