The Malta 2021 Stratospheric Balloon was a stratospheric upper-atmosphere weather balloon launched on 13 August 2021 from the Esplora Complex in the small, island-nation of

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. A false-advertising campaign before the launch stated that the balloon would be a "space balloon" despite the fact the stratospheric balloon only climbed to , short of the

Kármán line The Kármán line (or von Kármán line ) is an attempt to define a boundary between Earth's atmosphere and outer space, and offers a specific definition set by the Fédération aéronautique internationale (FAI), an international record-keeping ...

. The launch succeeded an earlier, failed launch in which the balloon detached from its sensory payload due to an imbalance of forces acting on the balloon.

References

2021 in Malta Balloons (aeronautics) {{Sci-stub