The edge of space is closer than many Canadians realize. From Aug. 15 to 23, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) will conduct the ICARUS 2026 campaign, sending meteorological balloons up to 35 kilometres above the Timmins Stratospheric Balloon Base in Northern Ontario.

This initiative is part of STRATOS, a stratospheric balloon program created in 2012 through a collaboration between the CSA and the French space agency, Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES). By partnering with France, Canada secured a highly cost-effective way to test space technology without the steep price tag of a rocket launch. This ongoing partnership has resulted in annual launch campaigns since the Timmins facility began operations in 2013, offering researchers a reliable near-space laboratory.

Stratospheric balloons at sunrise on the Timmins base. Credit: Canadian Space Agency. Credit: Canadian Space Agency

The ICARUS 2026 campaign places a strong emphasis on youth education and hardware testing. Financial support for the academic projects is provided through the CSA’s Flights and Fieldwork for the Advancement of Science and Technology (FAST) program. Meanwhile, many of the university-level payloads fall under the CAN-SBX Challenge, a national competition organized by Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Canada (SEDS-Canada).

“The goal of the campaign is to provide students with a unique opportunity to design, build and test small payloads before they are launched aboard a stratospheric expandable balloon system,” the agency noted in its project overview.

This year, the flights will carry five university-grade Canadian payloads alongside 15 separate experiments built by high-school students. The complete payload manifest includes the following projects.

CAN-SBX Challenge Payloads:

• EEVEE (PolyOrbite, Polytechnique Montréal): The team is demonstrating vanadium dioxide coatings as a passive thermal control method for future satellite applications.
• PHOEBE (Mission SpaceWalker, University of Alberta): Students will test an electric bioreactor containing cyanobacteria to observe its performance and energy generation in the stratosphere.
• PrOxYeast (InSpace, Carleton University): This project will deploy a controlled environment microscope to study microbes at extreme altitudes.
• SAFARI (LASSENA, École de technologie supérieure): Researchers are testing an end-to-end observation system that uses multispectral imaging and machine learning to identify early wildfire indicators for satellite-based platforms.

Additional University Payloads:

• ET-bio (Willi Lab, University of Lethbridge): This experiment will study the stability limits of Cell-Free Expression in the extreme stratospheric environment. The results will provide baseline data to inform future extraterrestrial biomanufacturing efforts.

High-School Experiments:

• Science Timmins: Local students designed 12 separate experiments to measure air pressure, altitude, ultraviolet intensity, and position, while testing how stratospheric conditions affect various materials.
• West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA): High-school students from this Montreal organization built three experiments to measure temperature and air pollutants while observing the physical effects of the stratosphere on everyday items.

Marc Boucher is an entrepreneur, writer, editor, podcaster and publisher. He is the founder of SpaceQ Media. Marc has 30+ years working in various roles in media, space sector not-for-profits, and internet content development.

Marc started his first Internet creator content business in 1992 and hasn't looked back. When not working Marc loves to explore Canada, the world and document nature through his photography.

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