Test Launch Successful

November 8, 1996

Reno, Nevada: The hiss of flowing helium began at 9:20 am. What looked like a large stretch of tin foil crumbled on a runway came to life as it rose into a bubble of helium gas in a silver balloon. "The whole inflation process can take up to three hours," commented Bruce Erickson, the launch master for this test flight of the Virgin Global Challenger, an around-the world balloon flight. As the balloon envelope slowly rose into an upright position, the launch crew scurried about loading last minute supplies into the open air basket, home to three volunteer balloon pilots for the next 24 hours.



"Well, wish us luck," said Marsha Neal who will be piloting the balloon with Koh Murai and Chuck Foster. "I don't think we'll get much sleep tonight, as we'll be working and monitoring the balloon through twelve hours of cold and darkness." Their plan is to fly for 24 hours, collecting data on the balloon's consumption of propane fuel. This data will then be extrapolated for the global flight, scheduled to take off from Morocco within the next two months.



Weather balloons filled with helium released from the airfield showed favorable ground conditions and a slight westerly blowing wind. "Looks like the conditions will remain calm down here. Initially they'll fly to the northwest and then when they gain altitude they'll turn back toward the northeast which is exactly where they wanted to go," explained Reno-based meteorologist Steve Brown. "They'll have 12 mile per hour winds at 10,000 to 12,000 feet, which is pretty ideal."



As sandbags were unloaded from the balloon one by one, the 4,000-pound system finally lifted off at 12:22 pm. Marsha, Koh, and Chuck were on their way, with an extra 5% of free lift to help them in their ascent. Bruce Erickson and his ground crew packed up and began to chase the balloon from the ground. "It's going to be an interesting chase because there are few roads out there once you get out of the major populated areas," said Erickson, who plans to communicate with the balloonists from the ground via an aircraft ICOM radio.



NOVA's ground crew will also be on the trail of the balloon, with their digital camera and laptop computer, ready to transmit information back to this web site as the story unfolds.

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