After The Flight
Shortly after Prather's death, President John F. Kennedy phoned Prather's widow, Virginia Merritt, and she arrived at the White House with her children, Marla Lee Prather and Victor A. Prather III. Kennedy posthumously awarded Victor Prather the Navy Distinguished Flying Cross for 'heroism and extraordinary achievement'. The balloonists were also awarded the 1961 Harmon Trophy for Aeronauts. The altitude record for a manned balloon flight set by Prather and Ross in 1961 is still officially recognized as unbeaten by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. The only other people in history to travel further into the stratosphere were Nicholas Piantanida (USA), who is claimed to have reached 123,800 feet (37,643 m) with his Strato Jump II balloon on February 2, 1966, and Felix Baumgartner, who has reached 128,100 feet (39 044.88 meters) on 14 October 2012 as part of the Red Bull Stratos project.
Read more about this topic: Victor Prather
Famous quotes containing the word flight:
“Its shrill scream seems yet to linger in its throat, and the roar of the sea in its wings. There is the tyranny of Jove in its claws, and his wrath in the erectile feathers of the head and neck. It reminds me of the Argonautic expedition, and would inspire the dullest to take flight over Parnassus.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)