News archive - May 2007
New microgravity experience (5/31/2007)
Sanriku (Japan).- On May 29th, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA, launched the second balloon from the spring campaign. The aim of the experience was to let free fall from 40 km a rocket like device developed to achieve 60 seconds of microgravity while falling at supersonic speeds. The flight started at 6:03 local time from the Sanriku Balloon Center, near Iwate, in the northern side of the country and used a 300.000 m3 balloon the only one capable to carry the near 300 kg of payload. A little before 8:30 the craft reached the ceiling height and an hour after was released over open sea the experiment. . After reaching supersonic speeds, the craft deployed the braking parachute wich prevented a violent impact into the sea. The microgravity rocket, the gondola and the balloon were recovered from the sea by a vessel and a helicopter. This was the second succesfull flight of this same experiment. Click here to see a detailed report on it. Succesful flight for HERO (5/30/2007)
This telescope, has been developed by the NASA to obtain focused images of astronomical X-ray sources at hard X-ray energies (20–45 keV). This was the fourth flight after other three done in 2000, 2001 and 2005. During this mission, the principal investigator of the project Dr. Brian Ramsey, tell to StratoCat that the telescope performed well and managed to perform 5 different observations of various x-ray sources. A complete report on the flight including images of the launch operations can be readed clicking here. A ballooning legend dies (5/28/2007)
Taos, New Mexico (USA).-Paul “Ed” Yost, well known inventor of the modern hot-air balloon and celebrated aviation pioneer, whose most famous innovation fostered the sport of hot-air ballooning, died yesterday at his home in Taos, New Mexico from natural causes. He was 87. Paul Edward Yost was born in Bristow, Iowa. In 1934, when he was 15 years old, Ed and his father set out to watch the first Explorer flight from the Stratobowl in Rapid City, South Dakota. He has been interested in balloons a long time. Yost was employed by the US Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945; he flew airplanes in Alaska from 1946 to 1948. In 1949 Yost started work as Senior Engineer and Tracking Pilot for the High Altitude Research Division of General Mills in Minneapolis, where he worked on many scientific high altitude balloon projects. In 1956 he and 3 others left General Mills to form Raven Industries receiving a contract from the Office of Naval Research to create an aircraft that would carry one man and enough fuel to fly for three hours, carry a load to 10,000 feet, and be reusable. On 22 October of 1960, Yost made the first-ever free flight of the modern hot air balloon from Bruning, Nebraska using an envelope made of a newly-developed heat-resistant fabric with heat generated by a propane burner. Yost then further refined and improved on his original designs and materials and by 1962 the first balloon was sold to an individual, and the sport of ballooning was created.
During the cold war, Yost invented a small, lightweight, disposable, cheap balloon that was used to send US leaflets behind the Iron Curtain. He also developed a balloon that carried a camera to take photographs from hostile territory. For the Vietnam conflict, Yost developed and constructed thousands of fast deploying parachutes to deliver supplies to the troops. In 1963 Yost piloted first balloon flight across the English Channel with crew member Don Piccard. Flying from Rye, Sussex, England to Gravelines Nord, France, in 3 hours and 17 minutes in a 56,000 cubic foot Raven balloon named “Channel Champ”. This flight gained worldwide attention and generated a great deal of interest in this new sport of hot-air ballooning. On October 6, 1976, with no fanfare and little media attendance, Ed Yost departed Milbridge, Maine to attempt a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon named Silver Fox that he designed and built. On October 10, after a flight of 107 hours and 37 minutes, covering a distance of 2,740 miles, the balloon touched down in the Atlantic 200 miles east of the Azores and only 700 miles from the coast of Portugal. In that flight Yost set distance and duration records. In 1978 Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson, and Larry Newman made the first complete crossing of the Atlantic in a balloon designed, built, and launched by Ed Yost. Extracted from a biographical statement published at National Balloon Museum website  More on Yost Longtime friend Colonel Joe Kittinger stated “Ed was not only a pioneer for hot air ballooning, but he also was instrumental in the improvement of gas balloons. In that capacity, he was striving to have a national monument made near Rapid City, South Dakota.” Kittinger and others have vowed to continue these efforts and to make Yost’s dream of such a national monument a reality.Today John Craparo, friend of Yost published a very emotive message in the Balloonmail mailing list, stating that "Ed was a product of history who made history. He also understood the importance of honoring those who came before him. Those who were and are in the arena". The message continues focusing in Yost's life effort to transform the Stratobowl in a National Monument and preserve ballooning history. Please read it enterily here. As a final proof of his passion for ballooning, Mr. Yost’s family requests that as no memorial service is planned, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the National Balloon Museum in Indianola, Iowa. More information:
Record breaking attempt failed (5/18/2007)
Sanriku (Japan).- The Japanese Space Agency JAXA, launched today from the Sanriku Balloon Center, near Iwate, in the northern side of the country the flight test of a new balloon made of a ultra-thin material (2.8 microns) aimed to reach a height of 55 km beating the actual height record of 53 km established by the same agency in 2002 (image). The balloon was launched without troubles at 5:55 local time, but soon after this it burst. The collapsed bag and the instrumentation carried on board landed in a nearby hill near 500 meters north of the launch site and were recovered at once. After examination, damage of the film on the balloon head was verified. Last year this same task was truncated due to bad weather (strong winds) and a previous flight in October 2005 with a similar balloon only reached 51.5 km. Until now no word was published on a reflight attempt. New documentary on MANHIGH and EXCELSIOR projects (5/16/2007)
During their filming trip of three weeks in the United States the crew is also filming at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, where they interviewed Col. Kittinger; at the Air Force high-speed test track and high-altitude balloon facility at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico; and at the NASA Langley Research Center in Virginia. Muenter's one-hour documentary will be a science-oriented story about Air Force research in which he will contrast early scientific studies by Kittinger, Stapp and others with AFRL's contemporary research. "We want to retell their story. These guys were actually the first astronauts but they are not as well-known as they should be" said Muenter, who earned a master's degree in physics before becoming a full-time filmmaker about 10 years ago. "They did it with a determination that's really admirable, at a time when space travel was practically unheard of." The stations plan to air the documentary in October to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial satellite, which entered earth orbit on October 4, 1957 marking the beginning of the Space Age. Spring campaign started in Fort Sumner (5/10/2007)
This first flight numbered as 568NT (the three fisrt digits being the flight number, the first letter signaling a launch made outside Palestine (TX) base and the last letter pointing to a technological flight instead of a scientific one) was launched near 15:00 utc with the aim of testing a new balloon made of a material called Stratofilm SF-450. According to the flight parameters, the 40.000.000 cu ft balloon performed well and after near 5 hours of leveled flight at 129.000 feet it was terminated, landing some miles southeast of Logan, New Mexico. The fallen balloon caused surprise near San Jon according to the press article published in the QCSun Online newspaper. To see a complete map of the balloon flight path click here. |
Fort Sumner, (New Mexico).- After a failed flight 
Wright Patterson AFB (Ohio).- In the framework of a project supported by German public television station WDR and French-German television network Arte the German film producer Daniel Muenter and his crew captured footage May 8 and 9 at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate in the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The film will be part of a Documentary telling the story of Air Force high-altitude research pioneers Captain Joseph W. Kittinger and Lt. Col. (Dr.) John Paul Stapp, who made invaluable contributions to flight science by subjecting themselves to high-risk experiments as mankind pondered space travel.
Fort Sumner, (New Mexico).- After waiting several days -apparently waiting the right conditions- on May 9th was launched the first balloon of the spring campaign conducted every year by NASA's Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility from the 