High-altitude balloon
Videos
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 above sea leve
The BLAST high-altitude balloon just before launch on June 12, 2005
NASA Super Pressure Balloon (2016)
A photo taken from a 1,500 g (3.3 lb) weather balloon at approximately 100,000 ft (19 mi; 30 km) above Oregon
A latex weather balloon bursting at about 29.5 km (18.3 mi; 97,000 ft)
A high-altitude platform station, also known as atmospheric satellite, is a long endurance, high altitude aircraft able to offer observation or communication services similarly to artificial satellite
High-altitude balloon
…World View Enterprises are developing both crewed and uncrewed high-altitude balloons for scientific research, commercial purposes, and space tourism. High-altitude platform stations have been proposed for applications such as communications relays. In many countries, the bureaucratic overhead required for high altitude balloon…
Wind profile variation with altitude from NASA, showing minimum wind speeds between 17 and 22 km (56,000 and 72,000 ft). Although absolute values will vary, the trends shown are similar for most locations.
Capable of flying up to 60,000 ft (18,300 m) more than 34 hours, the RQ-4 Global Hawk was put into USAF service in 2001.
NASA Pathfinder Plus
NASA Centurion