3 ms·
This did seem quite surprising to me as well - I think they might have let it go if it wasn't quite such a high rate of ascent. 2000ft/min could easily give the
by 46Bit 14y ago
This did seem quite surprising to me as well - I think they might have let it go if it wasn't quite such a high rate of ascent. 2000ft/min could easily give them a final altitude way above what they'd expected.
- tisme 14y agoConsider the risk of having the balloon go pop while he was still in the capsule. Mission shot to hell with no chance of recovery all for going beyond the design parameters of the balloon. They did well by playing it safe and not letting the ascent get out of control or too much above the target. Better to have 3 records set than an uncontrolled ascent with a small possibility of higher records (but not more of them) and a significant chance of disaster.