They Launch Tuesday

British pilots Andy Elson and Colin Prescot are on their way to St. Ives for the attempt to take the largest ever helium balloon to a record-breaking 132,000ft (25 miles) and break the 40-year-old world altitude record for a manned balloon.

UK science and technology research company, QinetiQ, is sponsoring the mission which is expected to launch between 0600 and 0800 on Tuesday 2nd September. QinetiQ marketing director Brenda Jones said: "The QinetiQ 1 balloon and flight platform is being loaded on to the deck of our ship, RV Triton, in readiness for launch. RV Triton is moored in Falmouth and will be sailing for St. Ives."

Andy Elson, en route Falmouth said, "Obviously we're quite excited, but once we sail from Falmouth it might all begin to sink in a little bit."

Colin Prescot said, "I'm feeling calm, but very pleased that 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 Colin and Andy dress in the spacesuits which are critical to their very 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 Andy Elson and Colin Prescot will be floating in a virtually atmosphere-free environment and be able to see the curvature of the earth.

The British Meteorological Office has been monitoring the weather and recently provided the pilots with forecast data allowing them to pinpoint the preferred conditions to launch and fly the balloon. A novel trajectory prediction model that was developed by Reading University also helped them narrow down a launch date.

Made from 1.7 tons of polyethylene, the QinetiQ 1 helium balloon will have a volume at 132,000 feet of 44 million cubic feet. At its launch, it will be seven times higher than Nelson's Column and as high as the Empire State Building; 400 times the size of a normal balloon.

Andy Elson and Colin Prescot are both commercial balloon pilots with 40 years experience between them and a number of ballooning records to their names. Most recently, Andy and Colin together 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 twelve in Glastonbury, which has designed and built the balloon envelope and flight platform for QinetiQ 1. In order to make the enormous envelope Andy designed a brand new manufacturing process. Polyethylene load tapes give the balloon its strength and structure and the entire process is strictly quality assured.

Malcolm Ross and Vic Prather, both with the US Navy's Strato-Lab, set the current altitude record of 113,740 ft on May 4, 1961, as part of the US space program. No one has attempted the record since. QinetiQ says this region of the stratosphere, commonly known as the 'ignorosphere', has remained equally unexplored.

QinetiQ will be mounting several experiments on board the balloon to find out more about this region. Its CREAM (Cosmic Radiation Activation and Effects Monitor) experiment, previously used on Concorde, NASA's space shuttle and the MIR space station, will collect a record of the region. Sensors on board will also collect data about temperature and pressure, which will help scientists plan hypersonic flight vehicles of the future.

FMI: www.qinetiq.com