Wow. This is insanely cool. Guy blows up balloon with helium and the balloon reaches a maximum height of 22.27 miles above the earths surface, taking one picture every minute of the ride.

Just 2 1/2 hours later, the balloon reached its pinnacle of 117,597 feet—holy moly, that's 22.27 miles above the earth! At that point, the helium balloon burst and its payload parachuted safely back to Earth, where there were a few recovery teams close enough to see its soft landing. Cool pix, indeed!

Yes, I wondered about all this expensive equipment being shot down or starting WW3. Ha ha

LOL Thankfully, that didn't happen.