Page 4 - Cluster Balloon News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

For them to expand. >> after all the balloons are staged, we put them in clusters of five. then you start assembling the groups of five into larger assemblies of 15 or 20. >> once everything checks out, couch kisses his wife and, with cameras rolling, begins the ascent. >> for the most part, i can't steer myself. that's what i like about this little cluster ballooning thing. you just go where the winds take you. >> the thing you wouldn't realize is how peaceful it is up there. it's super quiet. he's traveling at the same speed of the wind. even when he was moving at 50 miles an hour, he could ...

Pops a couple balloons to come back down. running out of ballast is the end of the ride in terms of his ability to control his altitude. each time it made things a little better just learning from the previous flight. >> i started using a pilot's parachute, which is nice and comfortable. we had more balloons, more ballast, we got more security and safety. better communication between the ground crew. >> july 5, 2008. kent couch attempts to fly from bend, oregon, to boise, idaho, and break his record of 193 miles traveled in a cluster balloon. >> on launch day, we had to be up at 3:30 in the mo...

Launch day finally arrives. >> when we were assembling the balloon, the two kids, max and his best friend miles, were just so excited. >> we had bought like some lollipops so me and miles were really hyped up. >> the kids give this really great countdown. >> ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, zero, blast off! >> we cut off the balloon and it goes up. >> it started rocking wildly like crazy. it was going about 25 feet a second. it was pretty fast. after about two minutes, it disappeared into the clouds. >> they track the craft's coordinates. but that's no guarantee they'...

Hard case and kind of made it this hamburger shape that was very aerodynamic. >> and then we spray-painted it so we could see it if it fell in the forest. it was traffic cone paint, so it really stood out. >> although the neon paint will make it easier to spot, they will need something much more dependable if they want to find it. >> the iphone seemed to have the best app to track the balloon. it gives you longitude and latitude but altitude as well. >> if you lost your phone, you would have like where to track it and we could follow it. >> next to the camera was a little hd camera that's used...

It was about 22 feet in diameter. it's enormous. a the little craft below it. >> it got like that big. because the pressure lightens as you get up. there isn't a lot of oxygen. and the air is very thin. >> the pressure of the helium inside the balloon is now much greater than the surrounding air pressure. so it continues to expand until finally the balloon pops and the craft comes plummeting back to earth at more than 100 miles an hour. >> so the parachute deploys maybe 30 seconds after the balloon bursts. it doesn't do anything until it gets to heavier air. >> at one point, it rocked head ove...