What’s New
- Jul 2024 : Successful XL-Calibur launch
The XL-Calibur balloon from NASA was successfully
launched at 05:04 local time on the 9th of July from Esrange Space Center (Sweden).
The flight is expected to last 4-5 days and it is possible
to follow its journey across the Atlantic
before landing in northern Canada.
- Oct 2023 : New XL-Calibur launch window
The new XL-Calibur launch window from Kiruna, Sweden, is set from May 7 to July 15 2024.
- Oct 2022 : Update on the XL-Calibur Jul 2022 flight :
the 6-day long flight had to contend with an accidental drop of the entire flight ballast
at one side of the gondola, leading to 3.5 days of recovery operations without science
observations. Furthermore, a mirror alignment error prevented the observations of
the X-ray targets in the remaining time.
- 12 July 2022 : Successful XL-Calibur launch
XL-CALIBUR was launched in the early morning hours of 12 July 2022 (local time) from
Esrange under excellent launch conditions. The balloon carried the payload to 130,000
feet altitude until the mission was terminated over northern Canada on July 18, 2022.
- 24 June 2022 : XL-Calibur compatability testing at Esrange
The fully assembled XL-Calibur telescope was rolled out for
its prelaunch compatability test, which confirms fit and balance with
the final balloon rigging. The planned launch after this test
was scrubbed due to weather.
- 9 May 2022 : XL-Calibur reassembly at Esrange
Team members begin assembling and testing of the components
after successful shipment to Sweden. Read more
on the
XL-Calibur blog page.
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