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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.
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]
The balloon rose at a speed of 250 metres per minute (820 ft/min) and reached an altitude of 53.7 km (176,000 ft), surpassing the previous world record set in 2002 [10] This was the greatest height a flying object reached without using rockets or a launch with a cannon .
He held the world record for the highest skydive—102,800 feet (31.3 km)—from 1960 until 2012. [1] [2] He participated in the Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high-altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960 and was the first man to fully witness the curvature of the Earth.
Because he did not return to earth with his balloon, his unprecedented altitude is not recognized by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as a balloon altitude world record, and because he did not jump from the balloon's gondola at 123,500 feet, he earned no parachute altitude record. His third attempt occurred on the morning of May 1 ...
With Lieutenant Commander M. L. Lewis (USN), established a world altitude record in the plastic ONR 56,634-cubic-metre (2,000,000 cu ft) Strato-Lab High I balloon, breaking the 21-year-old record set by Explorer II. [17] They took off at 6:19 AM from South Dakota's Stratobowl, a natural depression shielded by 500-foot (150 m) hills near Rapid City.
The U.S. military is monitoring an unidentified "small" balloon flying at high altitudes over the west, according to two U.S. officials and a defense official.
In 1979 he designed and built the first hot air balloon with a pressurized gondola. [2] On a late October morning from Longmont, Colorado he flew this new balloon to world record 55,134 feet (16,805 m). It took Nott, in his balloon named "ICI Innovation," 1 hour 9 minutes and 42 seconds to reach the world record altitude.