COSI started as a stratospheric scientific balloon experiment. Through several flights and instrument iterations, and two names (COSI was originally called NCT – the Nuclear Compton Telescope), COSI’s most recent balloon-borne instrument design features 12 High Purity Germanium Detectors (GeDs), each with 37 electrode strips per detector face. This can be compared to the newest Instrument Design from the COSI collaboration, for COSI-SMEX (a Small Explorer satellite), which builds on the legacy of our successful balloon-borne instruments and increases the number of detectors from as well as the number of electrode strips per detector face.

Visit the Campaigns section to learn more about each of our balloon campaigns, including the potential upcoming 2021 campaign in Wanaka, New Zealand. Keep up with the latest by following us on Twitter or in the News. Get a sense of what it’s like to work on a balloon campaign, and what campaign life is like by reading the Blogs. Finally, learn about our balloon collaboration by checking out our Team or Contacting Us.