At one meter, the Sunrise Balloon-Borne Stratospheric Solar Observatory is the largest solar telescope to leave the earth. Its aim during its June 12 to June 17, 2013 flight was to study the magneto-convective processes of the sun at a resolution of better than 100 km.
On June 8, 2009 the Sunrise balloon-borne telescope was successfully launched from the Esrange Space Center in Kiruna, Sweden aboard the HAO-developed gondola.
The Sunrise Gondola, with all essential equipment intact, landed on June 17, 2013 after being aloft for about five days. The Gondola was recovered by helicopter from the Boothia Peninsula; a very remote area in Nunavut’s northern Canadian Arctic.