The time has come to launch the telescope BLAST to approximately 40 km altitude for a week-long flight from Esrange to North-western Canada.

BLAST will be launched by a giant balloon (1.1 million m3), to collect unique and important scientific data as well as paving the way for many similar balloon campaigns planned for the future.

For several years scientists from different university and institutes from the USA, Canada, United Kingdom and Mexico have been preparing this large and heavy (2000 kg) sub-millimetre-telescope for the launch scheduled for the end of May or beginning of June.

The first possible launch day is May 25 (between 13.00 - 15.00) but this launch date is of course depending on weather conditions. BLAST Principal Investigator, Prof. Mark Devlin, University of Pennsylvania, says "BLAST will address some of the most important cosmological and galactic questions regarding the formation and evolution of stars, galaxies and clusters.

"It makes use of bolometric arrays to achieve highly sensitivity images at three sub-millimetre wavelengths, while at the same time testing technology used in the future ESA sub-millimetre space telescope Herschel to be launched in 2007."

Launch and flight operations for the unmanned, helium-filled balloon are conducted by the National Scientific Balloon Facility, Palestine, Texas, in cooperation with the Swedish Space Corporation's (SSC) balloon team at Esrange. NASA Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va., manages the Balloon Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

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