Launched date confirmed. 02 of July. Northam, Western Australia
According to the data available on 28th of June (12 UTC), there is a weather window for the launch of the “MORTON” balloon on 2nd of July, Saturday. Good trajectories for crossing Australian continent.
The proposed launch program is below:
1st of July, Friday:
– Early in the morning the crew will start covering the field adjacent to the taxiway with protecting coating;
– The balloon/envelop will be taken out of the container and placed on the covered field; min. 20 people are required to complete this task;
– The gondola will be moved from the hangar to the aero field by crane. It is expected that assembling the balloon will take the whole day;
– At the same time, technicians from the Cameron Balloons will be mounting 2 meters’ steel gas bottles around the gondola.
The goal is to complete preparation tasks by night.
During the night the balloon will be filled in with helium – about 10,000 cubic meters will be pumped in. Representatives of Supagas Company have already arrived to Northam.
The launch is planned on 2nd of July, Saturday, at the sunrise. That’s the plan. Attached are anticipated trajectories of the flight on the altitudes of 6,000 and 7,000 meters for the first few days flight.
Translated by Galina