I'll be adding to this blog post in coming days. It appears as though balloons circumnavigate Antarctica all the time. Of course, there is no way for the ordinary person to verify this or-- if it's being done-- to verify time and distance. It's hard to imagine how a two or three ton payload can be lifted to 100,000 ft with a balloon anyway, given air density decreases as you rise. And at 100,000 feet, air density has to be pretty thin.
This liftoff of a possibly fake mission reminds me of the space jump done by the energy drink company awhile ago.
Here's my blog about the fake RedBull spacejump. I address a number of points that are valid with this NASA balloon over Antarctica.
http://redbullhoax.blogspot.com/
See INDEX below under "balloons... " for more posts about these balloons.
It's not just one balloon... but hundreds of balloons have been released.
Source: From Comments in another post...
Can we really believe that balloons have been released from all the following marked [in red] locations?
http://www.livescience.com/17599-research-balloons-antarctica-nsf-bts.html
[superimposed on the missing google hole,in part]
http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/022/925/i02/Figuretwo.jpg?1324504771
http://www.livescience.com/17599-research-balloons-antarctica-nsf-bts.html
[superimposed on the missing google hole,in part]
http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/022/925/i02/Figuretwo.jpg?1324504771
It doesn't seem possible that there could have been the sheer number of releases as pictured above. Imagine the cost for one thing. And the launches require crane trucks and other equipment. How is it possible that crane trucks can be all over antarctica? Note the missing hold part in the middle again on the Google photo... which appears quite distorted.
