Pretty sure it did on the way up.
Probably will on the way down too, but some aircraft do fly at that altitude. 😀 I wonder if it’s an expensive hobby, to build a balloon capable of going that high. Maybe the hobbyist is in China. 🤗
Did they consider at that altitude......maybe the hobbyist is in China?
Oh wait......it’s Biden’s call.......”can’t be China, China’s our friend.”
Here’s an interesting website that tracks some probably not all hobbyist balloons around the world.
Here’s a link to a Ham Radio Operator that has detailed step by step instructions including pictures of how to build a Pico Balloon capable of circling the globe that can be tracked.
The cost of building a fairly sophisticated Pico Balloon that’s trackable is probably less than $500 dollars and often times much less than that.
Here’s the tracking website I left off by mistake.
https://amateur.sondehub.org/#!mt=Mapnik&mz=5&qm=12h&mc=44.41809,-95.40527
WAY back in the day, when I lived in a house heated with the product that Citizens Gas and Coke supplied in Indianapolis, I made a few balloons from very thin plastic drop cloths - 9*12 feet in size.
Fold them over, tape edges, and you get a bag 9*6.
Fill them with stove gas and you get a bag with very little lifting power, about a book of matches, a stub of a cigarette, or a few sparklers.
Due to low gas pressure and permeability of the plastic it takes 20-30 minutes to fill. (Ya do this OUTSIDE!)
At night you get one of two effects.
The balloon slowly lifts outta yer yard and disappears into the night sky.
A few minutes later, after the cigarette burns down to the matches, you get a SPECKTACULAR!!! fireball in the sky!
Alternatively you leave a trailing of sparks into the sky with a fireball ensuing when the sparks meet the plastic.