Project Strato-Lab

Stratolab was a high-altitude manned balloon platform flown by the United States during the Space Race in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Stratolab flew five times, culminating in a world-record-setting flight by experimenters Malcolm Ross and Victor Prather to 34,668 meters (113,740 feet) above sea level, on May 4, 1961. Victor Prather drowned during the recovery operation. Their general high altitude flight record held for just one day - on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard flew on the Mercury Redstone manned sounding rocket - but the record still stands for manned balloon flight.