CANCELLED

It is with great sadness that I have to announce that we have had to cancel this weekend's weather balloon launch from Heaton Park. At the last moment, the Civil Aviation Authority were not able to grant us permission for the launch to go ahead.

At 12pm on Saturday, 8th October, we will be sending a weather balloon into the upper atmosphere from Heaton Park, North Manchester.
The balloon will be carrying a camera as well as some scientific equipment, and we hope to get some beautiful images of the Earth.
The balloon will be launched by meteorologists from the University of Manchester’s School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences in conjunction with the North West Centre of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Members of the public are invited to come along and see the balloon being launched. There will be some related activities to have a go at – guessing where the balloon will come back down to ground, taking part in a balloon race and taking part in some of the OPAL climate survey activities. Heaton Park will also be hosting a Tree Party on the same day.

The balloon will be launched from just in front of Heaton Park Hall, and there will be a countdown to the launch from 1130am.

If we manage to retrieve the balloon and its payload, then the data and the images it captures will be available on this website after the launch.

Journalists - please see the PRESS RELEASE for the launch