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Cluster ballooning was inspired by Larry Walters's experience, although his was not the first. [1]On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters (April 19, 1949 – October 6, 1993) made a 45-minute flight in a homemade aerostat made of an ordinary lawn chair and 42 helium-filled weather balloons. [2]
High-altitude balloons or stratostats are usually uncrewed balloons typically filled with helium or hydrogen and released into the stratosphere, generally attaining between 18 and 37 km (11 and 23 mi; 59,000 and 121,000 ft) above sea level. In 2013, a balloon named BS 13-08 reached a record altitude of 53.7 km (33.4 mi; 176,000 ft). [1]
Explorer II was a crewed U.S. high-altitude balloon that was launched on November 11, 1935, and reached a record altitude of 22,066 m (72,395 ft). Launched at 8:00 am from the Stratobowl in South Dakota, the helium balloon carried a two-man crew consisting of U.S. Army Air Corps Captains Albert W. Stevens and Orvil A. Anderson inside a sealed, spherical cabin.
A Helikite lifting a gyro-stabilized camera. The Allsopp Helikite is a kite balloon or kytoon designed by Sandy Allsopp in the United Kingdom in 1993. [1] This Helikite comprises a combination of a helium balloon and a kite to form a single, aerodynamically sound, tethered aircraft, that utilises both wind and helium for its lift.
Balloon rockets work because the elastic balloons contract on the air within them, and so when the mouth of the balloon is opened, the gas within the balloon is expelled out, and due to Newton's third law of motion, the balloon is propelled forward. This is the same way that a rocket works.
In 1934 the NGS and Air Corps co-sponsored the Explorer, a manned high-altitude balloon capable of stratospheric flight. After the crash of the Soviet Osoaviakhim-1 that nevertheless set an altitude record of 72,178 feet (22,000 m), the sponsors redefined their primary objectives from record-setting to scientific research and tests of new navigation instruments. [1]
According to helium conservationists like Nobel laureate physicist Robert Coleman Richardson, writing in 2010, the free market price of helium has contributed to "wasteful" usage (e.g. for helium balloons). Prices in the 2000s had been lowered by the decision of the U.S. Congress to sell off the country's large helium stockpile by 2015. [23]
A balloon race that took place in Bremen, Germany, in 2009. A balloon release is a ceremonial event in which a number of hydrogen- or helium-filled balloons are launched into the sky. Balloon releases can be done as a prayer ceremony, to create a photo opportunity, to raise awareness of a cause or campaign, or as a competitive long-distance race.