OPENING FLIGHT - BANA

This flight carried a technological gondola called BANA on which were mounted several smaller payloads and systems, including a Canadian experiment. The objective was as occur in any launch campaign of the french space agency CNES, Balloon Division, to perform an end to end test of all the systems (both airborne and ground) to be used in the rest of the campaign. This is what they call the "Opening Flight".

Balloon launched on: 8/21/2014 at 9:34 utc
Launch site: Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Base, Ontario, Canada  
Balloon launched by: Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon model 100z Zodiac 100.000 m3
Flight identification number: NIMBUS-1
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 8/21/2014 at 17:23 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 7 h 47 m
Landing site: 25 km N of Chapleau, Ontario, Canada
Campaign: STRATO SCIENCE 2014  
Payload weight: 188 kg
Overall weight: 1078 kg

• Assessment of the Last Two STRATO SCIENCE Campaigns in Timmins, Canada SpaceOps 2016 Conference, SpaceOps Conferences, (AIAA 2016-2611)
• Vol d'ouverture : premier succès ! Centre National d'Études Spatiales