Details of the balloon and launch operations

Launch site:European Space Range, Kiruna, Sweden  
  Launch team: CNES
Balloon: Open balloon model 35SF 35.000 m3
Serial number: 35SF Nº 95
Flight identification number: SSC 214
Campaign: THESEO 2000 
Payload weight: 235 kgs
Gondola weight: 65 kgs
Overall weight: -

The balloon was launched from ESRANGE on 23 January 2000, at 14:38 UTC by dynamic method assisted by auxiliary balloons.

After a initial ascent phase the balloon achieved the float altitude.

Due to temperatures lower than expected, the trajectory of the balloon differed from the one forcasted, and the flight was stopped only two hours after the launch for safety reasons.

The payload landed in good shape.



Description of the payload or experiment

SALOMON (Spectroscopie d'Absorption Lunaire pour l'Observation des Minoritaires Ozone et Nox)

Responsable institution:  Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement (LPCE) / Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
Principal Investigator:  Jean-Baptiste Renard

Is a balloon-borne UV-Visible spectrometer (350 - 700 nm) that uses the moon as the light source.

The instrument is dedicated to the measurement of the vertical distribution O3, NO2, NO3, OClO, OBrO and of the extinction coefficient of aerosols beetween 15 and 40 kms.

It's a totally autonomus instrument and weights 85 kgs.



Performance in flight and data obtained


During this third flight of SALOMON the observations were performed at the edge of the vortex and for the first time during a Moon rise. Due to the premature end of flight only 14 minutes of data were recorded.

The flight was a success in terms of technological tests since the pointing system found the Moon immediately at an elevation on -4 degrees (tangent point just above the tropopause).



External references and bibliographical sources