Timmins gets lofty: research balloon launch nears completion.

• Author: Cowan, Liz
• Position: DESIGN-BUILD

Timmins will be known for more than the hometown of renowned hockey greats and a famous country singer.

Its airport will be the site of a joint space agency, research balloon launch, the only one currently in Canada.

The joint program between the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), and France's Centre National d'etudes Spatiales (CNES), chose Timmins as the best site due to meteorological factors and low population density

"We looked around from coast to coast to coast at mid-latitude sites and after a six-month study, Timmins was chosen," said Daniel Levesque, senior engineer of flight systems with the CSA.

"It also has all thee advantages of a big city"

The research balloons are launched to gather scientific information, demonstrate and test technology, and to train the next generation of aerospace engineers and space scientists.

The space agency's balloon program, which had been running from the 1980s, was stopped in 2005 due to budget constraints. The French space agency's balloon program has been running for the past 50 years, but could no longer operate due to population density.

"They were looking around for another country, with a mid-latitude site," he said. "They wanted wide-open space and low-population density, and we were looking for a way as well to restart our balloon program."

Canada is providing the launch base and France will fly some of Canada's payload, while giving frequent flight opportunities to this country's scientists and engineers.

The balloons fly to the stratosphere, about 40 kiometres above earth.

"There are very few opportunities to study that layer since it is too high for airplanes and too low for satellites," Levesque said.

Balloons also allow astronomists to get a clearer view of space.

"When you have atmosphere between what you look at and a telescope, the image is distorted. So putting a telescope on a balloon allows them to get some good science for a relatively low cost," he said.

While the scientific data gathered varies, balloons were responsible for detecting the depletion of the ozone layer.

"It was really via the balloon that scientists -really discovered what was happening to the ozone layer and that eventually led to laws and regulations for (chlorofluorocarbons) CFCs," Levesque said. "We realized those gases were destroying our layers."

A launch campaign will be held every two years, with the goal to increase that to two, every three years.

The campaign lasts about two months and 10 balloons will be...