Evening star., 1935-11-11
National Geographical. S.
Army StratoSphere Bag
Scars Past 14-MiIe Mark
After Perilous Take-0tf.
STEVENS AND ANDERSON
REPORT BITTER COLD
Thousands Cheer Start From
Rock-Walled Bowl in South
Dakota as Aeronauts Dump
Ballast to Clear Trees by
Scant Margin.
6y the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
RAPID CITY, S. Oak, November
1l.-Capt. Albert w. Stevens reported
the stratosphere balloon Explorer IL
had reached $4,000 feet. setting new
unoffcial world altitude record sur
passing even the mark set in 1884 by
three Russian flyers.
The best previous official American
stratosphere mark was 6l.236, set by
the Settle Fordney flight in 1888. This
mark is recognized as the official world
balloon altitude record. An unofficial
record of 72,176 was claimed for three
Soviet Russian balloonists in 1884, but
they we're killed making their descent.
Falling pressures on the balloons
meters indicated to the ground crew
that Explorer II was still climbing.
Explorer II was somewhere near
Martin, S. Oak, and had travelled
about 100 miles southeast from the
natural bowl here which was its base.
s. Degrees Below Zero c.
It was S. degrees below zero (centi-
erade) outside the sealed metal gon-
dola, Capt. Stevens reported by radio
and the thin-air chill penetrated the
light shell. Inside, the temperature
was minus 7 centigrade."
Below the flyers the sky was an ex-
panse of white, grading into bright
blue said Stevens, and above them was
q let black mysterious sea of space.
1t was even darker on the side of
their little metal ball which faced the
sun, than on the shady" side, Stevens
told his ground crew via radio.
The worlds largest balloon took off
at 7 am. (Mountain standard time)
today on its long-awaited journey into
the stratosphere for scientific ex-
ploration.
The giant balloon reached height
of $4,000 feet at 10:l7 am. (moun-
tain standard time). 1t was heading
south into Nebraska. At Gordon,
Nebr., the balloon was reported sighted
half way between Gordon and Rush
vile. Nebr., at 10 am.
At 9:25 am. (mountain standard
time) Capt. Albert w. Stevens. COM
mander, reported an altitude of 28,-
o00 feet. with the balloon going up 500
feet minute.
Capt. Stevens reported it was 40
below zero outside the gondola when
the $4,000 feet altitude was reached.
Everything, he said. was still all right,
adding however, we have to watch
everything very carefully" He said
the instruments, including the specto-
graph and stratoscope, were working
well,
Earth Radiance Registered.
We've registered the earth radiance
at 200 candles" the captain reported.
The suns radiance varies with the
angle of observation
At 9:07 am. Stevens had radioed:
'We're up 81 200 feet and going up
300 feet a minute.
Everything going all right now,"
his message said. Its getting more
comfortable in here. Temperatures
now degrees above zero, c. Not bad.
We got one leak here. We put bal
loon over it and it's not such a good
one. We've got to fix it."
SIh-"CCh WdIU 1OA
perfect weather the giant craft rose
successfully from the rock-walled
natural howl. II miles southwest OF
here, about two hours behind the
scheduled time.
Ballast Dumped to Clear Rim.
At the start Capt. Orvil A. Ander-
son. pilot. dumped several bags Of
ballast when it appeared the balloon
might come too near the trees on the
rim of the bowl, and the bag success
fully cleared the obstacle.
Capt. Anderson expected to land
about 2:45 pm. (Mountain standard
time).
Capts. Andersen and Stevens drew
q flexible schedule At about 10000
feet they had expected to close the
portfolios, sealing themselves in their
metal sphere. They will depend upon
(See STRATOSPHERE, Page %