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The expedition carried out in March, 2008 to Lake Baikal became an important stage in the development of the SPHERE experiment. During the expedition the SPHERE-2 installation was hoisted, for the first time, on a tethered balloon, APA, to a height of 700 m over the lake surface covered with ice and snow. A series of test measurements were made. Preliminary results of the data processing are presented. The next plan of the SPHERE experiment is to begin a set of statistics for constructing the CR spectrum in the energy range 10 16 – 10 18 eV .

The modern status of the SPHERE experiment and the method to determine the primary energy and the kind of the primary nuclear particles is presented. The SPHERE experiment is based on A.E.Chudakov's suggestion to use a new method for investigating the ultra high energy primary cosmic ray energy spectrum [A.E. Chudakov, Trudy conf. po cosm. lutcham, (in Russian), p.69, Yakutsk, 1972]. A small device lifted above the snow surface of the Earth detects the Cherenkov light of extensive air showers reflected from the surface. The relatively simple detector SPHERE-2 (spherical mirror 1.5m diameter and retina of 100 pixels) is presented. The next plan of the SPHERE experiment is to start measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum in the energy range 10 16 – 10 18 eV above the snow surface of Lake Baikal.

The experiment SPHERE is based on a A.E. Chudakov's suggestion to use a new method for investigations of the energy spectrum of ultrahigh-energy primary cosmic rays. A small device lifted up off a snowed surface of the Earth detects Cherenkov light of an extensive air shower that is reflected from the surface. A contemporary status of the experiment SPHERE, a description of the method, the first measurements of the background night starlight in the region of the Russian Antarctic station Novolazarevskaya are presented. A relatively simple detector SPHERE-2 including a spherical mirror of the diameter 1.5 m and a 100-pixel retina is developed for Antarctic balloon-borne measurements of the cosmic ray spectrum. A long-time winter flight makes it possible to measure the spectrum above 10 20 eV . A comparison with satellite and ISS projects of the nearest future shows that efficiency of this detector is sufficiently high.