Overview
- The Atlantic Explorer landed safely in Luxembourg on Sunday, June 7, after about 70 hours in the air, project spokespeople said.
- All three pilots — Bert Padelt, Alicia Hempleman-Adams and Peter Cuneo — are unharmed and disembarked after the landing near Diekirch and Bettendorf.
- The team says the balloon used hydrogen as its sole onboard lifting gas and reached average altitudes around 14,000 feet with top speeds near 100 km/h, forcing the crew to use supplemental oxygen and cope with ice buildup from rain.
- The mission represented the project’s first full ocean crossing after earlier weather-grounded or shortened attempts and the team describes this as the first open-basket transatlantic crossing powered only by hydrogen.
- Organizers are conducting recovery work and a post-flight debrief while saying technical logs and fuller flight details will follow, and the success raises questions about the risks and practical uses of hydrogen for long-range balloon flight.