From Near Space, 100 Balloons with Cameras to Send Video of Eclipse
21 Aug, 2017. Photos of different eclipse stages taken by telephoto lens (All photos courtesy of Kelly Gorham/Montana State University) NASA, and its video platform Stream, will launch 100 balloons attached to cameras that will soar 100,000 feet above the Earth’s surface to provide us with live aerial footage of the solar eclipse on Monday, […]
Rope-Walk at a Terrifying Height Between Balloons
Photo courtesy of Aeronautic Montgolfier Stanislav Paniuta walked on a wobbly rope 2,165 feet above the ground, between two floating hot-air balloons, above Uman, in Ukraine’s Cherkasy Oblast region. It was his first time “slacklining” between balloons as onlookers watched with bated breath while he kept calm and concentrated on scaling the 33-foot rope. The […]
Incredible Journey of a Japanese Balloon Bomb
Historic Balloon to Become Museum Exhibit in Michigan (Part 2 of 2) On February 23, 1945, three preteen boys, Larry Bailey and brothers Ken and Bob Fein, were playing in North Dorr, Michigan, near the Fein’s house. All of a sudden, a mysterious object appeared floating overhead and descend at a 45° angle. The boys […]
A Japanese War Weapon and Don Piccard’s Famous Flight
Historic Balloon to Become Museum Exhibit in Michigan (Part 1 of 2) During World War II, the Japanese used knowledge of atmospheric science and lighter-than-air technology to attack US mainland from November 1944 through April 1945. About 9,300 balloons strapped with explosives, called FU-GOs, were launched from Japan to ride a jet stream –30,000 feet […]
Leak Causes Scientific Balloon and Space Observatory Payload to Sink in Pacific Ocean
A leak in a stadium-sized scientific balloon forced NASA flight controllers to bring it down in the South Pacific Ocean on May 6th. The super-pressure balloon (SPB) and its space observatory payload, worth several million dollars, have sunk to the bottom of the Pacific, about 321km south of Easter Island, with no chance of recovery. […]
World’s Largest Airship Achieves a Three-Hour Test Flight
The world’s largest aircraft returned to the skies since its last crash landing in August and flew for three hours today. The $33 million hybrid airship, which is part blimp, aircraft, and helicopter and is the length of a football field, took off over Bedfordshire, in England. Airlander10 makes a 3-hour flight on 10th May,2017. […]
Fifty Years of Balloon-Borne Ozone Research
In 1967, scientists launched a weather balloon from Marshall Mesa, in Colorado. The balloon carried a new instrument that could measure ozone levels from the ground to the edge of outer space — and radio the data back to a ground receiver. The instrument was an early version of today’s ozonesonde. This modest research project […]
New World Record: 82 Balloons Take Flight to Cross English Channel
Balloons took to the skies in record numbers on Friday, April 7, as 82 hot air balloons launched from Lydden Hill Race Circuit at 7 a.m., and traveled over the famous White Cliffs of Dover to Calais, France, etching a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. The event was organized by Exclusive Ballooning […]
Balloon Fleet for Channel Crossing on “GREEN” for April 7th
“Green” for Friday morning, April 7th. About hundred hot air balloon pilots are getting ready for a mass crossing of the English Channel this Friday, April 7th, if the weather cooperates.Datum RPO, who are backing the project and will lead the fleet, have updated the status from “Amber Alert” to Organized by leading aerial marketing […]
Exhibition Portrays Birth-of-Flight Era
“Clouds in a Bag” on View at the National Air and Space Museum’sSteven Udvar-Hazy Center In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Sophie Blanchard, became a celebrated balloonist and aeronautical entertainer drawing huge crowds to her balloon-based stunts. As fearless and ambitious as her husband, the famous French ballooning pioneer Jean-Pierre Blanchard, she rode […]
