Sixty three years after Homi Jahangir Bhabha’s Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) set up India’s first ‘balloon facility’ or high altitude balloon launching facility at Hyderabad in Telangana, the country’s second balloon launching facility was inaugurated in Chandrapur by Kolkata based Indian Centre for Space Physics (ICSP) on Monday.

Chandrapur is about 18 kilometres away from district headquarters of Siuri in Birbhum district.

Thus Chandrapur in Birbhum has now become part of the country’s latest research hub for atmospheric science. The first gigantic sized atmospheric balloon was launched on Monday by the scientists of ICSP about a radius of 100 feet and made up of superfine polyethylene sheets.

The balloons become active after flying about 37 to 42 kilometres high. It weighs around 9 kg. The payload in the balloon is formed with X-ray machines, lithium ion batteries, three types of camera etc. The balloons to be launched from this centre will have a radius of about 20 feet to 100 feet.

District magistrate of Birbhum, Bidhan Roy was also present during the balloon launching ceremony at Chandrapur.

Dr Sandip K Chakrabarti, director of ICSP, Kolkata and an eminent astrophysicist and space scientist said that they have launched this high altitude balloon launching facility earlier, but it did not have its own balloon launching facilities yet.

“To overcome that problem, now we have set up our own stratospheric balloon launching centre at Chandrapur in Birbhum district on six bighas of land. It has been selected because the path is not used for aircrafts passing through this region as it is not a flight route and the balloon launching times will not collide with the flight paths,” he added.

The centre aims to conduct research with the several layers of the atmosphere and feels that the new facility will open new vistas in the high altitude balloon research technology.

This is the silver jubilee year of the Indian Centre for Space Physics in Kolkata. In its 25 years journey, ICSP has highlighted its commitment to advancing knowledge and innovation in astronomy, astrophysics and space science.

In Hyderabad balloons are launched in two seasons- summer (January to April) and winter (October to December).