Student experiments fly to the stratosphere with BEXUS 38 and 39 balloons

From 9 to 19 October 2026, 79 university students from across Europe had the opportunity to participate in the BEXUS 38 and 39 launch campaign, which enabled them to fly student-built experiments aboard two stratospheric balloons. The launches took place at Esrange Space Center, Sweden, with six student teams supported by the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA) and European Space Agency (ESA), and five teams supported by the German Space Agency (DLR).

Programme heritage

The launch of the BEXUS 38 and 39 stratospheric balloons comes in the 17th cycle of the REXUS/BEXUS programme, which allows students from universities and higher education colleges across Europe to carry out scientific and technological experiments on research rockets and balloons, following the typical design and development process of a space project.

Selected students participated in a rigorous selection workshop, followed by a student training week, and multiple project reviews supported by industry experts and professionals from space agencies. In preparation for the launch at Esrange Space Center, final systems and integration checks were conducted, providing students with exposure to real test campaigns and launch operations.

BEXUS 39

The first balloon launched at 14:28 CEST on 14 October 2026. The balloon ascended to an altitude of 26.8 km with a float time of two hours, before being recovered on 16 October 2026. BEXUS 39 carried five experiments, one from Germany, and four from other European countries.

Sponsored by SNSA and ESA:

• CHRONO-CAT (Characterisation of High-altitude Radiation on Oscillator Noise and Output Stability + Radiation Detector Comparative Atmospheric Test) – University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
• HELIA (High-altitude Exposure Laboratory for Incubation and Analysis) – University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
• MIRAGE (Methane InfraRed Absorption Gas Experiment) – Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
• ROCSAR (ROtation Compensated Synthetic Aperture Radar) – University of Porto, Portugal

Sponsored by DLR:

• SHROOM (Stratospheric High-altitude Radiation Observation of Organismic Mycology) – Ludwig Maximilan University of Munich, Technical University of Munich, Germany

BEXUS 38

The BEXUS 38 balloon took off on 17 October 2026 at 10:35 CEST, ascending to an altitude of 33.4 km. After a float time of 41 minutes, the balloon was cut, allowing the gondola to begin a gentle descent back to Earth, where the experiments were retrieved. BEXUS 38 consisted of six experiments, developed by four student teams from Germany and two student teams from other European countries.

Sponsored by SNSA and ESA:

• BLESS (BEXUS HaLow Evaluation in Stratospheric Systems) – Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, Spain
• COATHEAL (In-Flight Demonstration of Self-Healing Coatings) – Polytechnic University of Bucharest, Romania    

Sponsored by DLR:

• ALBEDO (Measurement of the spectrum of solar radiation in different atmospheric layers) – Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• CLOUDS (Calcium carbonate Light Observation Under Stratospheric Dynamics and Scattering) – Justus Liebeg University of Giessen, University of Applied Sciences of Central Hesse, Germany
• DOPAMINS (Detection Of Positron Annihilation Mission In Near Space) – Technical University of Berlin, Germany
• PHILEAS (Project for High altitude Identification of Lightweight Exogenic Airborne Specimen) – Technical University of Munich, WARR, Germany

Results

Both balloons were recovered and student teams could retrieve their experiment samples and data.

Preliminary results were presented at the post-flight meeting on the last day of the campaign, with teams reporting a successful flight for their experiments.

Now back at their home universities, the teams are completing their post-flight data analysis in the coming weeks.  

About REXUS/BEXUS

The REXUS/BEXUS programme is realised under a bilateral Agency Agreement between the German Space Agency at DLR (German Aerospace Center) and the Swedish National Space Agency (SNSA). 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). EuroLaunch, a cooperation between SSC Space and the Mobile Rocket Base (MORABA) of DLR, is responsible for the campaign management and operations of the launch vehicles. Experts from DLR, SSC Space, ZARM and ESA provide technical support to the student teams throughout the project. REXUS and BEXUS are launched from SSC Space, Esrange Space Center in northern Sweden.