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Pilot Steve Fossett, is constantly setting records and tackling new challenges. His August 1998 attempt to make the first successful balloon flight round the world attracted worldwide attention, but ended prematurely when his balloon ruptured in a thunderstorm, plunging him 29,000 feet into the Coral Sea east of Australia. He narrowly escaped death -- but in the process set ballooning's absolute world distance record at 14,235.33 miles. On two previous flights he had advanced the world distance records, 5,435.82 miles when he made the first solo balloon flight across the Pacific in February 1995 and 10,360.61 miles when he launched from Busch Stadium and flew to Sultanpur, India, in January 1997. In his five attempts to make the first global circumnavigation, he scored many firsts: the first flights across the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe and across the Indian and South Atlantic oceans. Fossett is equally accomplished in sailing. He holds 10 official world records, including the Pacific Ocean single-handed, Round Britain and Ireland, and Newport to Bermuda. He holds eight race records, including Newport-Ensenada, Chicago-Mackinac and the Single-handed Transpac. Last year be broke a number of speed records in his Citation X jet. He set the U.S. Transcontinental Records both ways for nonmilitary airplanes, flying from San Francisco to New York City in 3 hours, 42 minutes. He also set the Transcontinental Record westbound flying from Jacksonville, Fla. to San Diego in 3 hours, 29 minutes. He also set the round the world records for medium airplanes both eastbound, in February 2000, and westbound, November 2000. Long fascinated by endurance sports, he has swum the English Channel, run Alaska's famed Iditarod Dogsled Race, driven the 24 Hours of Le Mans sports car race and finished the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. Fossett, 57, is president of Larkspur Securities Inc., an investments company. He is a Trustee of Washington University, where he earned an MBA in 1968, and was a recipient of the John M. Olin School of Business Distinguished Alumni Award in 1995. He earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University. Fossett is on the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America and is a Fellow of The Royal Geographic Society and The Explorers Club. He is married to the former Peggy Viehland of Richmond Heights, MO.
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Project Manager Cole has served in one capacity or another with United States around-the-world ballooning attempts since 1981. He flew as co-pilot with Fossett in the record-setting 1994 transatlantic flight and served on the teams for Fossett's January 1997 and January 1998 attempts. He was chief engineer for the summer 1998 flight. Cole holds two world and 26 national ballooning records and has been inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame. In 1995, he and Dennis Brown, Launchmaster for this flight, were awarded the Diploma Montgolfier, ballooning's highest honor. He has been an agent with Farmers Insurance Group in Greeley, Colo., for 28 years.
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Chief Meteorologist Rice is directing the Solo Spirit weather team, which will operate from mission control at Washington University in St. Louis. Rice, who has 47 years' experience, 39 as a private meteorological consultant, has provided meteorological routing for 26 long-distance manned balloon flights. Many of these set world records, including first transatlantic, first solo transatlantic, first transcontinental, first hot-air transatlantic and first hot-air transpacific. He provided support for Steve Fossett and Tim Cole's transatlantic flight from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada, to Hamburg, Germany, in August 1994. He was Chief Meteorologist for Fossett's August 1998 solo circumnavigation attempt. Rice, who first trained as a meteorologist in the U.S. Air Force, also provided support for the joint circumnavigation attempt by Fossett, Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand, launching from Morocco in December 1998, and he worked with Kevin Uliassi in his 1997 round the world attempt. For more than 20 years, Rice has focused on special projects and adventure support. Some 23 years ago, he originated the concept of sailboat race routing. He has worked with Fossett in most of his sailing achievements and was Meteorologist for Team New Zealand when it won and then defended the America's Cup in 1995 and 2000. He's currently the Meteorologist for Oracle Racing, challengers for the 2003 America's Cup. For the past six years, he's provided meteorological services through his own company, Bob Rice's Weather Window Consulting Inc., Wolfeboro, N.H. |
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Mission Control Director Ritchie, a businessman and long-time friend of Fossett's, will head the mission control team at Washington University in St. Louis, with responsibility for maintaining communication with the capsule, mapping flight paths and tracking the balloon's progress. He will work with the tracking and meteorology teams to plot the balloon's course and speed and to help Fossett steer the balloon around threatening weather patterns. Ritchie served as recovery director for the January 1998 and summer 1998 flights, coordinating recovery of the balloon and equipment, and he flew the chase planes during Fossett's 1997 flight to India and a 1996 transcontinental flight to New Brunswick. Ritchie works in computerized trading in Chicago and runs a mentoring company called HOSTS, Help One Student to Succeed.
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Science Director Keith Bennett is Affilliate Associate Professor of Computer Science at Washington University in St. Louis. He teaches classes in software engineering, computer graphics, space engineering, and software project management. Bennett is also Director of Project Aria, a Washington University hands-on engineering program. Project Aria is designed to aid both engineering undergraduates and St. Louis regional elementary and secondary students. Project Aria is a hands-on space engineering/science program that allows student to gain engineering and science experience through the analysis, design, manufacture, launch, and operations of real spacecraft. It allows them to work with muti-disciplinary teams on a project beyond the scope of any one person or one discipline. For more information on Bennett's research and background, please click here, www.seas.wustl.edu/users/bennett.
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Media Director Leicht is responsible for planning and managing all communications with media before, during and after the mission, at the launch site and in mission control. She will oversee operations of the media center, the news and information Web page, the radio broadcast service and the university's newspaper. Leicht, associate vice chancellor and executive director of University Communications at Washington University in St. Louis, served in the same role for the two 1998 Solo Spirit flights. She has worked in public relations for 25 years and has managed numerous major media events at Washington University in St. Louis, including the 1992 and 2000 presidential debates, several presidential visits and major conferences, and the Olympic Festival. She is Chair of the International Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.
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Launchmaster Brown is a 25-year ballooning veteran and has flown gas balloons for 14 years. He has been launch director for most of Fossett's ventures, including the 1994 transatlantic flight, the 1997 and 1998 winter launches from St. Louis and the summer 1998 attempt from Mendoza, Argentina. As Launchmaster, Brown is in charge of procedures to assemble and launch the balloon. This process, which includes installing equipment and loading helium on board, takes about 12 hours leading up to the launch itself. In 1995, Brown and Project Manager Tim Cole were honored with the prestigious Diploma Montgolfier, awarded by the Fˇdˇration Aˇronautique Internationale, the world's governing body for ballooning, for being the first balloonists to use anhydrous ammonia as a lifting gas. He lives in the Denver, CO area.
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Inflation Director Kugler has served with Fossett's team since it was formed in 1994 for Fossett and Tim Cole's transatlantic flight. He has trained numerous pilots in gas ballooning, including Fossett in 1993. With Tim Cole and Dennis Brown, he developed ammonia gas ballooning. He is a top competitor in gas ballooning, taking 2nd Place in the America's Challenge race in 1999 and in 2000 took 5th Place in the world's most important gas balloon race, the Gordon Bennett Cup. He is a board member of the Balloon Federation of America Gas Division. Kugler is president of Kugler Co., a fertilizer manufacturer in Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado. |
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Systems Director As systems director, Padelt is responsible for building, repairing and organizing much of the equipment used in the Fossett balloon, including the pre-launch assembly process. A championship balloonist and launch expert, Padelt assisted in Fossett's previous round the world attempts in 1997 and 1998. Involved with ballooning since age 12, he is one of very few persons in the United States who build high-tech gas racing balloons, and his craft have earned world records. Padelt serves on the board of directors of the Gas Balloon Division of the Balloon Federation of America. His company, "Best" Aviation Services, Bally, Pa., builds, repairs and inspects hot-air and gas balloons.
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Engineer Elson built the Solo Spirit capsule and developed the high altitude burners. Elson, 46, from Wells, Somerset, England, trained as an aeronautical engineer and discovered a passion for ballooning in 1986 and quickly became the world's acknowledged expert in high altitude flying. In 1991, he was the first to fly a balloon over Mt. Everest. In early 1999, he set, with Colin Prescot, the Absolute World Duration Record of 19 days, 12 hours in his third Round the World attempt which ended in a wet landing off Japan.
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Launch Team Sheese was co-pilot with John Kugler in their 2nd Place finish in the 1999 America's Challenge Race and their 4th Place finish in the 2000 Gordon Bennett Cup in Belguim. Sheese was a team member for Fossett's 24 Hours of LeMans and Daytona 24-hour car races. He was Fossett's training partner for the Ironman Triathalon in 1996.
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Bob McClusky, Bob Ross, Ed Heltshe, John Lippert Launch Team Members These team members have all helped in prior launches of Fossett's Round the World attempts, including the 1998 launch in Mendoza, Argentina.
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Student Involvement
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Barry Tobias Project ARIA Student Coordinator Year: Junior in 5 year BS-MS program Major: Mechanical Engineering Origins: Originally Cape Town, South Africa, calls Birmingham AL home. Summer Involvement: Going with payload down to Australia I joined Project ARIA in the beginning of my freshman year and took on the role of "Safety Engineer" for the ARIA-1 Project. My sophomore year I took over as Project Manager of the ARIA-1 until its culmination when it flew aboard the shuttle Atlantis on STS-106 (September 2000). I am now the Student Coordinator of Project ARIA and work with the project managers of the various projects being developed. It has been a very exciting 3 years. Being a huge space enthusiast, Project ARIA has given me a great opportunity to do what I love. Entering college, the last thing I imagined having the opportunity to do was to develop shuttle payloads and work with NASA engineers on a daily basis. Project ARIA has been a great experience and a pleasure to work on. I will be one of the two students attending the integration of the Palantir experiment onto Mr. Fossett's gondola in Australia. For the rest of the summer, I will be working with Prof. Bennett and Prof. Swartwout on the further development of the ARIA projects. I am also the 2000-2001 Chair of Washington Univ.'s chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and have been a former President of the Univ.'s Ultimate Frisbee Team.
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Jared Starman Project Manager/Camera Team Leader Year: Junior Major: Electrical Engineering Origins: Chesterland, Ohio suburb of Cleveland Summer Involvement: Going down to Australia with the payload I became involved in Project Aria my sophomore year, half way through the first project, Aria-1. After the success of that program, I volunteered to be the program manager for Palantir, a small imaging satellite that is part of the Cubesat program. The project that will fly with Mr. Fossett is the first step towards our satellite design. In addition to Project Aria, I have also been a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, Washington University Academic Team, and the secretary of IEEE. This fall I am taking a semester off to do a co-op program at Hunter Engineering, where I will do hardware design. I haven't decided upon post graduation plans yet, but graduate school seems extremely likely.
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David Olliges Officer on Computer/Sensors Team Year: Sophomore Major: Computer Science/Finance Origins: Louisville, KY Summer Involvement: Full time on campus with mission control and flight monitoring This project has allowed me to apply the things I've learned in the classroom to solve a real world problem. I have also learned a great deal about working on a multi-disciplinary team to achieve one goal
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Erin Marie Hickey Structures/Thermal team Officer Year: Freshman Major: Computer Science/Pre-Med Origins: Fort Dodge, Iowa Summer Involvement: Full time on campus with mission control and flight monitoring
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Gregory Thomas Peters Structures/Thermal team Officer Year: Sophomore (2000-2001) Major: economics/biology Origins: Omaha, NE Summer Involvement: The most enjoyable parts of being involved in the project have been learning things I never would have learned in my current course of study, meeting some of the most interesting members of the engineering faculty, meeting some other students---primarily engineers---who I otherwise would not have had the chance to meet and learn from by simply to talking to them, "thinking outside of the box," and just being a part of a great project that has demostrated tremendous success and shows great potential. I really enjoy scientific research and this has extended that interest.
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Jennifer Russ Power team Officer Year: Freshman (2000-2001) Major: in Art Sci but currently undecided Origins: Rockford, IL Summer Involvement: I am happy to be going to school at Wash U and working on such a cool project.
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Patrick James McNally Computer/Sensors Team Leader, Software Team Officer Year: Freshman (2000-2001) Major: Computer Science Origins: Dallas, TX Summer Involvement: Full time on campus with mission control and flight monitoring Building the tech demostration payload has given me a new perspective on how complicated even the simplest feats of engineering can be. All the crisis that arise daily, all the details that creep up on you, and the frustration that never stops. However the hands on experience has taught me more about Computer Science and Electrical Engineering than any one semester course could have taught me in the classroom.
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Jared Macke Computer/Sensors Team Officer, Public Relations Liason, Testing Team Manager Year: Freshman Major: Computer Engineering Origins: Belleville, IL Summer Involvement: Full time on campus with mission control and flight monitoring The Palantir Project has given me a chance to apply the information I've been learning in science classes for seemingly ever. Outside of a lab, there aren't many times I am required or even interested in applying the engineering knowledge I have, but projects like this really make me glad I'm on the track I am. I'm happy I've been given the opportunity to work with the team.
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Stephen Forbes Communication Team Leader Year: Freshman Major: Mechanical Engineering Origins: Sheridan, Wyoming Summer Involvement: I enjoy aeronautics and aerospace as well as robotics and history. I enjoy working on Aria projects because of the people I get to meet and their relevance to my interests in aerospace and aeronautics. I also like the project because I have had the opportunity to learn about fields, like radio communication, that I would not have otherwise been interested in.
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Jennifer Dionne Mission Operations Team Leader Year: Sophomore Major: Physics and Systems Science / Mathematics (SSM) Origins: Rhode Island Summer Involvement: My principal interests are in the field of astronomy and aerospace engineering - Many thanks to my parents who always encouraged me to reach for the stars As Palantir mission operations manager, I am principally in charge of the mission profile. In other words, I must determine what will happen when - when is it a good time to take a picture? when will we relay messages to the satellite? when will the satellite communicate with another satellite/the ground station? etc. In addition, I am also responsible for such aspects of the flight as:
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Nhat Vu Structures/Thermal Team Leader Year: Sophomore Major: Electrical Engineering Origins: Originally from Vietnam, now resides in Abbeville, Louisiana Summer Involvement: I have strong interest in robotics.
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Additional Team Members
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Chinsoo Kang Software Team Member
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Dave Costenaro Power Team Leader
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John Lawson Russell Earth Sciences Liason Year: Freshman Major: Earth & Planetary Sciences Summer Involvement: The Solo Spirit Project is amazing in that normal students get a chance to not only test a payload in a balloon, but to help the mission control as a whole. |
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Kurt Reed Amundson Mission Support Year: Sophomore Major: Mechanical Engineering |
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Robert "Joe" McDowell Mission Support/"Janitor" Year: Senior Major: Physics/Mechanical Engineering |
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