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BEXUS
BEXUS (Balloon-borne Experiments for University Students) is a German-Swedish student programme.This programme offers opportunities for students to conduct scientific and technological experiments on research balloons under special atmospheric conditions. The BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). Therefore, German and Swedish students each have access to 50 percent of the balloon payload. The Swedish share of the payload has been made available to students from other European countries through a collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA).The duration of the project is approximately 1 year.
The stratospheric balloons are flying unguided and reach a maximum altitude of 35 km. The flight duration is 2-5 hours, depending on wind and weather conditions. The launching site is located near Kiruna in the north of Sweden, on the European launching site for rockets and balloons, Esrange Space Center. The BEXUS 12/13 launch is planned for the last week of October 2011.