TOKYO, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- A Japanese airship made history Monday after becoming the first airship in the world to reach a stratospheric altitude, the Mainichi Daily News reported.
Officials of the National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan said the unmanned 156-foot-long airship left Hitachi Port in at 3:21 a.m. Monday and reached an altitude of 9.84 miles during the two-hour flight.
NAL officials collected samples of the stratosphere and examined the strength of the airship's body, which is made from reinforced fiber, before bringing it down in the sea some 24 miles off the port. The airship was successfully recovered for further examination.
The experiment is part of the development of a Stratospheric Platform airship system.
NAL is trying to manufacture an 825-foot-long airship that hangs above the Earth at a stratospheric altitude of about 12 miles and can be used as a base for observations and monitoring of the global environment or as a broadcasting station for telecommunication purposes.
