[dreamer7]

Apologies for the naive questions in advance.

Is it not possible to go up there in a hot air balloon to inspect it from a closer distance?

Also, what about base jumping onto it?

Are there any methods of getting it back to the ground intact?

[tjohns]

It's theoretically possible to get up there in a manned balloon, but this was up at FL600. Most aircraft can't even go that high. It's not something that's done casually.

Going up to those altitudes is the domain of either the military or someone trying to set a record. It's not a forgiving environment - you basically need a space suit up there. I'm fairly confident that nobody has the equipment for such a mission sitting around ready for use on short notice, especially if you want to stay up there for any length of time before you run out of air.

As for base jumping... uh, gravity points in the wrong direction for that. This is twice as high as Mt. Everest.

[dannyphantom]

Your comment reminded me of something I saw in grade-school that was probably the biggest inspiration in sticking with USASA (Red Bull is a long-time sponsor) for so long.

Red Bull Stratos: 'A high altitude skydiving project'

- Baumgartner flew approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) into the stratosphere over New Mexico, United States, in a helium balloon before free falling in a pressure suit and then parachuting to Earth.

- Baumgartner broke the unofficial record for the highest manned balloon flight of 37,640 m (123,491 ft)

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtvDA0W34I&t=3s

Interestingly enough: Alan Eustace, a former SVP of Engineering at Google surpassed that record (2) years later (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eustace)

- On October 24, 2014, he made a free-fall jump from the stratosphere, breaking Felix Baumgartner's world record.

- The jump was from 135,890 feet (41.42 km) and lasted 15 minutes, an altitude record that stands as of 2023

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Bull_Stratos (2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Eustace

[carabiner]

BASE jumping? Are there structures 60,000 ft tall?

[dreamer7]

Oops. I meant to say skydiving.

[xwdv]

Are you writing a spy novel