3 Plan Global Balloon Trip Way Up High
Three pilots on Thursday unveiled plans to use a NASA-designed helium balloon, thin as a sandwich bag and nearly as tall as the Empire State Building, to circle the globe at the edge of space.
The three men plan to lift off from Australia in late December or early January and cruise at an altitude of about 130,000 feet. Riding in a space capsule, the trio will cruise about 80,000 feet higher than any manned balloon has ever attempted.
No balloonist has ever successfully circled the Earth.
Other balloonists have been doomed by uncooperative governments, wind shifts, icing and other weather complications, said pilot Dave Liniger, chairman of Re/Max International Inc., an international real estate franchise organization co-sponsoring the venture.
“What we are doing is trading dangers. We are getting rid of all those dangers and going to a higher altitude,” he said. “The differences are we’re up with calm winds, very steady winds, we don’t have the jet stream, we don’t have the weather we don’t have thunder and lightning or updrafts or any of those things.”
Liniger, 52, of Denver, Bob Martin, 44, a reporter in Albuquerque, and John Wallington, 42, who owns Balloon Aloft in Canberra, Australia, will depart from Alice Springs, Australia.
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