imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#navy.mil

2025-04-17T23:36:39Z

Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#navy.mil

New page

{{short description|US Navy 1950s–60s high-altitude manned balloon program}}
{{Refimprove|date=October 2007}}
[[File:Project Strato-Lab.jpg|thumb|Project Strato-Lab display, [[National Naval Aviation Museum]], November 2019]]

'''Project Strato-Lab''' was a [[High-altitude balloon|high-altitude manned balloon]] program sponsored by the [[United States Navy]] during the 1950s and early 1960s. The Strato-Lab program lifted the first Americans into the upper reaches of the [[stratosphere]] since World War II. Project Strato-Lab developed out of the Navy's unmanned balloon program, Project Skyhook. The program was established in 1954 and administrated by Commander [[Malcolm Ross (balloonist)|Malcolm Ross]] ([[United States Navy]]). Malcolm Ross and others developed the program to accomplish research required for the manned rocket program to follow. This program provided biomedical data that was used for subsequent efforts in space. Malcolm Ross launched five numbered flights (Strato-Lab 1 through Strato-Lab 5) as well as other unnumbered flights.<ref>{{cite journal|title=High Altitude Balloon Research and Development Programs |date=22 April 1960 |last=Childs |first=Captain Donald R. |journal=United States Navy Medical Newsletter |publisher=U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery |volume = 35 | issue = 8 | pages = 28–35 | url=https://archive.org/details/NavyMedicalNewsletter19600422 | access-date = 19 June 2015}}</ref>

Strato-Lab was developed to allow humans to make observations and perform experiments in the upper reaches of the stratosphere using balloons constructed of a thin [[polyethylene]] plastic film. These balloons were developed during the earlier Projects Helios and [[Skyhook balloon|Skyhook]] by [[Jean Piccard]] and [[Otto C. Winzen]]. Their purpose was to reduce the weight of the balloons to a fraction of previous rubber balloons. The Strato Lab program used both open and pressurized gondolas built by [[Winzen Research|Winzen Research Inc]] and the balloon program in the Mechanical Division of [[General Mills|General Mills, Inc.]] Strato-Lab built on the earlier programs with goals to obtain fundamental data in the fields of astronomy, astro and atmospheric physics, and human physiology at high altitudes.<ref name="mannedspace11">{{cite web| url = http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-11.PDF| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010629190432/http://www.history.navy.mil/download/space-11.PDF| url-status = dead| archive-date = June 29, 2001| title = Space and the United States Navy: Manned Space| accessdate = 2009-01-14| author = Naval Aviation News Editorial Staff}}</ref>

The Strato-Lab flights made a number of contributions to the manned space flight program. One set of experiments demonstrated that protons from [[solar flare]] activity posed a serious risk to humans working in space. This contributed to developing methods of predicting and monitoring solar flare activity. Strato-Lab also contributed to early astronomical observations above the bulk of the Earth's atmosphere. Secondarily to the scientific objectives of the program, Strato-Lab set a number of records for scientific endeavor and general aeronautics.

The Strato-Lab flights culminated in a record-setting flight on May 4, 1961, by Commander [[Malcolm Ross (balloonist)|Malcolm Ross]] and Lieutenant Commander [[Victor Prather]] (USN) to test the [[Navy Mark IV|Navy's Mark IV]] full-pressure suit. The Mark IV suit overcame problems of weight, bulk, ventilation, air and water tightness, mobility, temperature control, and survival capabilities so well that [[NASA]] selected a modified version for use by the [[Project Mercury]] astronauts. The May 4 flight was the most severe test of the suits conducted.<ref name="mannedspace11"/> The flight set an altitude record of 113,740 feet (34.67 km), lasted 9 hours 54 minutes, and covered a horizontal distance of {{convert|140|mi|km}}.<ref name="ciaachievements">{{cite web| url = http://www.ballong.org/peter/jesper/cia/report.php?period=07&title=Part%207| title = CIA Notable Flights and Achievements| author = CIA}}</ref> The research goals of the flight were successful, but Victor Prather drowned during the helicopter recovery from the [[Gulf of Mexico]].<ref name="cofhigher">{{cite web| url = http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/20th_cent_records-2/LTA12.htm| title = Higher, Farther, and Longer – Record Balloon Flights in the Second Part of the Twentieth Century| author = U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission| url-status = dead| archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20030430070850/http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Lighter_than_air/20th_cent_records-2/LTA12.htm| archivedate = 2003-04-30}}</ref>

For the record ascent, President [[John F. Kennedy]] presented the balloonists (Victor Prather, posthumously to his wife) the 1961 [[Harmon Trophy]] for Aeronauts.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10C17F83B5E107B8EDDA00994D8415B828AF1D3| title = President Gives Harmon Trophies: Three Pilots and Widow of Another Get Awards| accessdate = 2009-01-14| date = October 19, 1962|page= 62|work=The New York Times}}</ref> The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] [[cosmonaut]] [[Yuri Gagarin]] had orbited the Earth almost a month earlier, on April 12, 1961; and the next day, on May 5, [[Alan Shepard]] flew a sub-orbital trajectory on the [[Project Mercury|Mercury]] [[PGM-11 Redstone|Redstone rocket]].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://stratocat.com.ar/artics/stratolab-e.htm Stratolab, an Evolutionary Stratospheric Balloon Project] article by Gregory Kennedy
*[http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/attractions/aircraft-exhibits/item/?item=stratolab Stratolab gondola] at the National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Florida
[[Category:Accidents and incidents involving balloons and airships]]
[[Category:Accidents and incidents involving United States Navy and Marine Corps aircraft]]
[[Category:Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1961]]
[[Category:Aviation records]]
[[Category:Individual balloons (aircraft)]]
[[Category:1961 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:United States Navy in the 20th century]]
[[Category:Military projects of the United States]]
* {{cite journal
| title=High Altitude Balloon Research and Development Programs
|date=22 April 1960
|last=Childs
|first=Captain Donald R.
|journal=United States Navy Medical Newsletter
|publisher=U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery
|volume = 35
| issue = 8
| pages = 28–35
| url=https://archive.org/details/NavyMedicalNewsletter19600422
| access-date = 19 June 2015}}

Project Strato-Lab - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot: Rescued 1 archive link. Wayback Medic 2.5 per WP:URLREQ#navy.mil