MANTIS-1

The mission dubbed as MANTIS-1 was a brief, several-hour demonstration mission for an undisclosed customer with whom World View is developing some specialized civil-use-case sensors for future use aboard a long-duration Stratollite mission.

These sensors where transported in the so called TYCHO STRATOCRAFT a specially built modular platform developed by World View capable of being customized for a wide variety of unique mission needs and payloads including its own subsystems for telemetry, payload control, power and thermal control. It is named after the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601). As Brahe was the source of data used by others to make powerful discoveries, Tycho stratocraft is aimed to provide researchers with stratospheric access to make new discoveries.

There are three standard versions of the Tycho platforms for specific payload mass ranges: Tycho800, Tycho285 and Tycho20, where the number denotes the number of kilos that each of them can lift as payload. The systems that composed the TYCHO platform share heritage with those used by StratEx for the record setting manned balloon flights performed in October 2014.

Balloon launched on: 2/23/2024 at 14:40 utc
Launch site: Spaceport Tucson, Arizona, US  
Balloon launched by: World View Enterprises
Balloon manufacturer/size/composition: Zero Pressure Balloon  
Flight identification number: N138WV
End of flight (L for landing time, W for last contact, otherwise termination time): 2/23/2024 at 19:05 utc
Balloon flight duration (F: time at float only, otherwise total flight time in d:days / h:hours or m:minutes - ): 4 h 20 m
Landing site: Near the ghost town of Dos Cabezas, Arizona, US

• Interactive flight path of the balloon obtained via Airplanes Live!
• World View website