Aereal view nowadays of the Bemidji Regional Airport

The Bemidji Regional Airport, is a public air station, located 5 km northwest of that city in the Beltrami county, north of Minnesota. Actually it covers an area of a half hectares and have two tracks for to serve the local and commercial air traffic of the region.

During the decades of 1950 and 1960 several projects of Unites States Air force (USAF) and NASA among other agencies and various Universities used it to conduct experiments involving stratospheric balloons. The northern location of the city was specially suitable to perform flights related to Cosmic Ray research because at northern latitudes the incoming particles are less deflected by the earth's magnetic field allowing a better exposition to such particles of the equipment (emulsion plates, detectors, etc) or test subjects (mice and other animals). Also the site was relativelly close to the major center of balloon activity in the twin cities area.

The flights were performed during summer or fall months, renting space in the local hangar for payload integration work and testing of the instruments to be flown.

The last balloon flights were performed there in 1966.

Table of balloons launched from Bemidji Regional Airport

DateHourFlight DurationExperimentPayload landing place or cause of the failure
7/17/196004:55 CST14 hANIMAL CAPSULEIn Montana, US
7/23/196004:34 CST~ 15 hANIMAL CAPSULE--- No Data ---
7/29/196004:54 CST~ 15 hANIMAL CAPSULEAfter the parachute opened, an antenna suspended bellow the payload was torn off. The resulting loss of radio contact caused a delay in recovery of the capsule. 3 mice survived.
8/5/196004:56 CST~ 14 hANIMAL CAPSULE--- No Data ---
7/19/19611:18 UTC2 hION CHAMBER + SINGLE GEIGER COUNTER + GEIGER TELESCOPE--- No Data ---
7/20/196123:48 UTC10 hION CHAMBER + SINGLE GEIGER COUNTER + GEIGER TELESCOPE--- No Data ---
6/24/19624:59 cdt1 hCOSMIC RADIATION DETECTORS TESTLeech Lake, Minnesota, US
7/17/19625:05 cdt1 hCOSMIC RADIATION DETECTORS TEST10 miles E of Bemidji, Minnesota, US
7/18/19625:17 cdt13 hCOSMIC RADIATION DETECTORS TEST50 miles NW of Miles City, Montana, US
9/14/19667:39 utc13 h 30 mCOSMIC RAYS MEASUREMENTS15 miles E of Easter Ouster Island, Superior Lake, US
9/14/196614:22 utc10 h 8 mCOSMIC RAYS MEASUREMENTS10 miles NE of Aitkin, Minnesota, US
9/19/19669:50 utc3 h 55 mCOSMIC RAYS MEASUREMENTS2 miles N of Huntersville, Minnesota, US
9/23/196612:10 utc6 h 10 mCOSMIC RAYS MEASUREMENTS10 miles SE of Drummond, Winsconsin, US

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