Out of this world flight for balloonists
Colin Prescot and Andy Elson plan to begin their flight in the 1,270-ft tall QinetiQ1 from a ship off the Cornish coast tomorrow morning.
News of the imminent launch came yesterday from project sponsors QinetiQ, the British science and technology research company.
The balloon, as tall as the Empire State Building in New York, is expected to be visible from as far away as London during its flight.
Mr Elson said: "Obviously we're quite excited, but once we sail from Falmouth it might all begin to sink in a little bit."
Mr Prescot said: "I'm feeling calm, but very pleased we're getting the weather at last. I will be rehearsing everything in my mind during the next day."
Scientists from the Russian Space agency Zvezda are also en route to mission control in St Ives. The scientists will be on board prior to launch to help the balloonists dress in spacesuits, which will be vital to their survival.
The conditions on their open platform will resemble those on the surface of Mars, with temperatures dropping as low as -70°C (-94°F), then rising to around -25°C (-13°F) and with high levels of radiation.
At their target altitude the pilots will be floating in a virtually atmosphere-free environment and be able to see the curvature of the earth.
Made from 1.7 tonnes of super-thin polyethylene, the QinetiQ1 helium balloon will have a volume at 132,000 feet of 44 million cubic feet.
The pilots are both commercial balloon pilots, with 40 years' experience between them and a number of ballooning records to their names. Most recently, they set the world endurance record for any aircraft in the earth's atmosphere, when they flew from Spain to the Pacific in 17 days, 18 hours and 25 minutes as part of their round-the-world attempt.
Andy Elson led a team of 12 in Glastonbury, which designed and built the balloon envelope and flight platform for QinetiQ 1.
Malcolm Ross and Vic Prather, of the US Navy, with their Strato-Lab set the current altitude record of 113,740 ft on May 4, 1961, as part of the US space programme.
No one has attempted the record since and this region of the stratosphere commonly known as the ignorosphere has remained equally unexplored.
QinetiQ will be mounting several experiments on the balloon to find out more about this region.
The pair will be picked up by the RAF after splashing down in the Atlantic.
Prescot, 53, from Stockbridge, Hants, and Elson, 48, from Wells, Somerset, have been waiting since July for a suitable weather window for the attempt.
