PoGOLite ballon launched from Esrange

Today at 08.18 UTC, a balloon sized 1.2 Mm3 was launched from SSC’s launch facility Esrange Space Center.

The balloon carries a scientific instrument PoGOLite (Polarized Gamma-ray Observer) that will measure polarization of soft gamma rays. The gondola weighs about 2000 kg.

PoGOLite is a collaborative project between Swedish, French, Japanese and U.S. scientific teams, led by Professor Mark Pierce, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

SSC has built the outer structure of the payload with solar panels and is also in charge of the power system, data communication and the security system as well as the launch facilities at Esrange.

The balloon is now heading towards North America.

More information on PoGOLite:

http://www.sscspace.com/pogolite-2 (SSC)

www.particle.kth.se/pogolite (Royal Institute of Technology)

Position and flight track http://balloon.ssc.se

Twitter: https://twitter.com/markp8183 (Mark Pierce)

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