The Seychelles is a group of about 115 islands which lie 1600km off the coast of east Africa. The three central islands -Mahé, Praslin and La Digue- are granite, while the outlying islands are coral atolls. Unlike most similar islands, the Seychelles are not volcanic - they seem to be the peaks of a huge underwater plateau that was torn away from Africa.

The islands were uninhabited when the British East India Company were the first visitors to the archipelago in 1609. Thereafter, they became a favorite pirate haven. The French claimed the islands in 1756 and administered them as part of the colony of Mauritius. The British gained control of the islands through the Treaty of Paris (1814) and changed the islands' name from the French Séchelles to the Anglicized Seychelles.

The Seychelles became self-governing in 1975 and independent on June 29, 1976. They have remained a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

First balloon launches

As the islands are located in the center of the Indian Ocean, a zone of special interest for atmospheric scientist whom study the behavior of wind patterns and their influence in the monsoonal activity, starting in the late seventies Seychelles served several times for launch stratospheric balloons. The great majority -if not all- of these launches were performed by the french space agency CNES or the National Center for Atmospheric Research and involved a subtype of stratospheric balloon called superpressure balloons, much smaller than their stratospheric cousins and with the remarkable capability to perform long durations flights maintaining a constant flight level.

After an impasse of almost two decades CNES showed again interest to launch balloons there. Thus in in the early 2000's cooperation with Seychelles in the scientific ballooning was initiated, in the frame of the VASCO program dedicated to study the atmosphere/ocean interaction over the Indian Ocean. Contacts between CNES and the National Meteorological Services of Seychelles, were established leading to perform the first two launch campaigns in 2006 and 2007 for the VASCO program involving small superpressure balloons drifting at about 1000 m altitude, and "Aeroclippers" a new type of hybrid vehicle buoy-balloon, stabilized at 40 m altitude through a "guide rope" able to perform simultaneous measurement at the ocean surface and in the air.

The balloon launches took place in January and Febraury both years from the seaside at the Southern end of the Victoria airport, an aerial station originally built by the English in 1972 with only one runway of 2987 meters. At left we can see an aerial image of the launch site and the hangars loaned to airport authorities to be used as integration halls by the teams participating in the operations.

After these two first campaigns, in 2008 took place the Scout-O3 effort devoted to study the Upper Stratosphere and Lower Stratosphere at equatorial latitudes, funded by European Union, CNES, and several scientific institutes in Europe. This program used "Montgofières Infrarouges" (MIR), another concept of long duration stratospheric balloon by CNES, which as a special feature performs daily naturally vertical excursion in the lower stratosphere. The choice of the launch site for SCOUT-O3 was difficult. The site of Mahé was at the right latitude (5°S), however it was considered quite challenging to conduct these flights from such an island, because it is under the direct influence of the sea and often in the middle of powerful convective systems. But, given the quality of the relationship established for the previous VASCO project, it was finally proposed to launch from Mahé. Thus, three MIR and two superpressure balloons were launched from Victoria Airport in February 2008.

This first stratospheric balloon campaign, with five successful launches served to validate the Mahé site as a possible place for conducting such activity.

Table of balloons launched from Seychelles

DateHourFlight DurationExperimentPayload landing place or cause of the failure
6/26/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/27/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/28/1975 9 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/29/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/30/1975 8 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/1/1975 6 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/2/1975 6 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/3/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/4/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/5/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/11/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/11/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/12/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/12/1975 5 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/13/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/14/1975 8 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/15/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/16/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/17/1975 4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/17/1975 6 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/18/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/18/1975 6 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/19/1975 10 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/19/1975 1 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/20/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/21/1975 10 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/21/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/22/1975 9 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/22/1975 7 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/23/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/23/1975 4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/24/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/24/1975 4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/28/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/29/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/30/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
7/31/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/1/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/1/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/2/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/4/1975 7 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/4/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/5/1975 2 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/6/1975 4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
8/6/1975 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/16/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/17/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/20/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/22/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/24/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/25/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/26/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/27/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
5/28/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/2/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/10/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/14/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/16/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/19/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/23/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/25/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/27/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/28/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
6/30/1979 ---BLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/10/20056:002 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
2/14/200513:5530 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/16/20055:457 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
2/16/200510:005 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/19/200513:423 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/22/200513:428 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/23/20056:3922 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
2/24/20053:0010 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
2/25/20052:006 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/13/200610:1010 hAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/22/20063:103 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/22/200613:2114 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
1/22/20066:317 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
1/23/20064:123 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/24/20063:134 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/26/20062:452 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/26/20066:4025 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
1/28/20063:374 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/29/20067:578 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)--- No Data ---
1/30/200612:301 dAEROCLIPPER--- No Data ---
1/11/200711:10 utc33 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 44.31º E - 4.26 º S
1/13/20078:16 utc27 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 63:38 º E - 25.13 º S
1/13/200711:52 utc4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 61.53º E - 9.68º S
1/16/200711:18 utc16 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 68.17º E - 13.65º S
1/17/20076:23 utc31 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 59:03 º E - 45.62 º S
1/18/200711:43 utc7 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 59.12º E - 9.21º S
1/19/200712:18 utc33 mAEROCLIPPERLast position: 55:61 º E - 4.71 º S
1/22/20075:18 utc11 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 68.27º E - 17.76º S
1/24/20078:00 utc3 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 61:44 º E - 4.08 º S
1/25/20076:27 utc7 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 60.68º E - 11.01º S
1/27/200711:15 utc4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 66.54º E - 12.93º S
2/5/20077:20 utc10 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 61:77 º E - 20.25 º S
2/5/200710:27 utc21 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)Bransfield Strait, Antarctica
2/5/200711:08 utc18 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)At 59.98º E - 16.08º S
2/6/200710:58 utc14 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)In Zimbabwe
2/7/20077:25 utc9 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 60:43 º E - 22.34 º S
2/8/20077:30 utc1 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 56:28 º E - 7.11 º S
2/10/20078:07 utc5 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 56:35 º E - 9.56 º S
2/12/20074:00 utc2 dAEROCLIPPERLast position: 56:46 º E - 11.43 º S
2/11/200821:31 utc8 dSAOZ (Systeme d'Analyse par Observation Zenithale)Over Congo, Africa
2/15/200816:25 utc3 dµLID (Micro Lidar)Over Angola, Africa
2/17/200815:11 utc17 hµDIRAC (Micro Dirac)Over Indian Ocean
2/21/200814:28 utc4 dDRIFTSONDE--- No Data ---
2/24/200815:55 utc43 hBSP - TSEN--- No Data ---
2/8/201015:39 utc91 dDRIFTSONDEOver Sea of China
2/19/201016:21 utc78 dPSC1 (PARTICLES COUNTER + OZONE SENSOR)Over Indian Ocean
2/21/201020:32 utc83 dDRIFTSONDEBetween Fidji and New Caledonia, Pacífic Ocean
3/16/201213:55 utc~ 11 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)Over Borneo Island, SE of Asia
3/16/201213:05 utc~ 12 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)In the Indian Ocean
3/19/20126:35 utc16 hBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)SW of Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean
3/22/201213:45 utc~ 4 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)N of Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean
3/22/201213:20 utc~ 3 dBLPB (Boundary Layer Pressurized Balloon)E of Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean
11/11/201920:39 utc103 d 8 h 24 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (02-STR2)Sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 100 kilometers NE of Makira, Solomon Islands
11/12/201920:43 utc107 d 6 h 39 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (01-STR1)Sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 633 kilometers NE of Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands
11/18/201919:20 utc101 d 18 h 45 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (03-TTL3)Sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 150 kilometers E of Machala, Ecuador
11/27/201922:07 utc66 d 17 h 53 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (04-TTL1)Sunk in the Bengala Gulf, 480 kilometers NW of Andaman Islands
12/5/201921:17 utc80 d 2 h 46 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (05-TTL2)Sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 311 kilometers SW of Palmyra Atoll
12/6/201923:26 utc83 d 14 h 39 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (07-STR2)Sunk in the Indian Ocean, 480 kilometers W of Maldives Islands
12/6/20191:00 utc57 d 21 h 30 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (06-STR1)9 km West of Diguissiré villague in Mopti Region, Mali
12/7/201920:21 utc77 d 5 h 59 mSTRATEOLE 2.0 (08-STR2)Sunk in the Pacific Ocean, 20 km E of Marakei Atoll, North Gilbert Islands
10/19/202122:07 utc1 d 11 h 15 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (01-TTL5)In the Indian Ocean 475 kms NNE of Seychelles
10/20/202123:54 utc29 d 22 h 45 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (04-STR2)In the Pacific Ocean, 1900 km NW of Galapagos Islands
10/20/202100:35 utc12 d 15 h 33 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (02-STR1) SW of Pohnpei Atoll, Federated States of Micronesia in Central Pacific.
10/20/202121:40 utc31 d 12 h 50 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (03-TTL4)70 km S of Inírida, Colombia
10/27/202122:21 utc50 d 10 h 38 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (05-TTL3)In the Pacific Ocean, 100 km SW of Chiriqui Province, Panama
10/28/202121:31 utc43 d 19 h 30 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (06-TTL5)In the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km SW of Namibian coast
11/1/202119:36 utc44 d 12 h 18 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (07-TTL4)In the Arafura Sea near Papua, Indonesia
11/4/202123:22 utc54 d 4 h 6 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (08-STR1)In the Pacific Ocean 120 km W of Manihiki Atoll, Cook Islands
11/5/202122:30 utc67 d 18 h 30 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (09-STR2)In the Pacific Ocean E of Philipines Islands
11/8/202118:55 utc38 d 7 h 24 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (10-TTL3)In the Pacific Ocean, 115 km W of Manta Province, Ecuador
11/8/202120:32 utc36 d 23 h 46 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (11-TTL1)In the Pacific Ocean, 1600 km W of Galapagos Islands
11/12/202100:18 utc51 d 15 h 47 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (12-STR4)In the Pacific Ocean, 250 km NE of Choiseul, Solomon Islands
11/15/202118:44 utc71 d 7 h 18 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (13-STR1)In the Pacific Ocean, 800 km E of Line Islands
11/15/202119:52 utc4 h 30 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (14-STR2)In the Indian Ocean 25 kms SW of Seychelles
11/22/202118:50 utc56 d 16 h 8 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (15-TTL4)In the Pacific Ocean near the Mexican coast
11/22/202120:43 utc26 d 14 h 29 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (16-TTL5)In the South China Sea, near the coast of Vietnam
11/25/202122:28 utc20 d 17 h 30 mSTRATEOLE 2.1 (17-TTL3)In the Pacific Ocean near Sanana Island, Indonesia

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