Near Space Aerostat Experimental Station Starts Construction

The near space aerostat experimental station，a national science and education infrastructure has started construction in Siziwang Banner, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on November 14 to promote the development of the near space aerostat technology of China, according to the Aerospace Information Research Institute (AIR) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

According to AIR, the near space aerostat has the advantages of high cost-effectiveness ratio, high mobility, low technical difficulty of payload, easy updating and maintenance. It can be widely used for various scientific purposes, including cosmic ray research, hard-X and gamma-ray astronomy, infrared astronomy, solar physics, space physics and space chemistry, stratospheric and middle layer atmospheric physics, remote sensing and earth science, microgravity science experiments, etc. The station is to serve as a platform for high altitude scientific applications and practices.

The project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in 2017, among the “13th Five Year Plan” science and education infrastructure projects.

With an area of 103,000 square meters, the new launch site, together with the existing site which has been completed at the first stage, will form a shape of regular octagon with an inscribed circle diameter of 360 meters to meet the requirements for near space aerostat validation and test flights, and to prompt the rapid development of near space aerostat technology in China.