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2 veteran balloon pilots hope to launch Tuesday from Japan for record-breaking attempt
Original Publication Date: January 12, 2015 11:31AM
Publication Updated: January 8, 2025 9:03PM
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – An international team led by two veteran pilots is hoping to break a pair of major ballooning records when it launches its helium-filled balloon after weather delays.
Albuquerque pilot Troy Bradley and fellow pilot Leonid Tiukhtyaev of Russia hope to finally launch Tuesday from Saga, Japan.
Unfavorable winds over the Pacific Ocean forced a delay of the launch last week.
The team’s mission control will be located in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum.
The two pilots are aiming for the shores of North America, an attempt that will put them on course to break a distance record of 5,208 miles (8,381 kilometres).
They’re also looking to break the flight-duration record set in 1978 when Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman made the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight.
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