Solar Impulse succeeded!

Notre pays, la Suisse, a de quoi être fière ! Les deux tours du monde effectués à l’énergie solaire sont Swiss Made ! Félicitations à Bertrand Piccard, André Borschberg et à toute l’équipe de Solar Impulse !

#‎SolarStratos‬ inside Paris Match! Let’s get it and read the interview of Raphaël Domjan!

Welcome behind the scenes of SolarStratos! Follow the work and highlights of the team and Raphaël Domjan via our StratosTime, a short video made by Stéphane, our producer and director!

This summer we are taking you to Moscow, to our partner Zvezda. Raphaël and Roland went there to test the spacesuit Sokol (“Falcon” in Russian), which our eco-explorer will wear when reaching the stratosphere. Safety tests of the suit’s Life Support System have been carried out. Technical tests of the emergency system (enabling injecting a minimum of oxygen into the spacesuit, while at the same time maintaining closed-circuit circulation) were also carried out and everything went extremely well. Other adjustments are currently being made and Raphaël will be able conduct the next tests in the fall. You can follow of all this in pictures!

Summer has been playing hard to get. Now that it’s finally here, we hope you can take full advantage of it to have fun and relax. We’ll catch up with you again soon so you can find out about the newest advancements and developments of SolarStratos.

Have a great summer and thank you for your enthusiasm.

The postcard that Bertrand Piccard is holding has “solarly” crossed the ‪#‎Atlantic‬ twice: once westwards with PlanetSolar and once eastwards, recently, with Solar Impulse! Thanks and congrats again, dear solar friends!

June 23rd 2016 is a historic day: Solar Impulse just landed on the European soil in ‪#‎Sevilla‬ after a 70 hours flight from ‪#‎NewYork‬. Stratospheric congratulations to Bertrand Piccard, André Borschberg and their team for this magnificient solar achievement! ‪#‎futureisclean‬ ‪#‎AtlanticCrossing‬

Family portrait with our Moscow friends from ‪#‎Zvezda preparing with great commitment Raphaël‘s future ‪#‎spacesuit. More information on ‪#‎SolarStratos in a single click.

After 2 years of loyal service, the SolarStratos website came under a digital scalpel and completely changed its design. The objective was to give a new user experience, both in terms of navigation and aesthetics. Particular attention was paid to the highlighting of the SolarStratos Club because SolarStratos is not the work of a small group of crazy adventurers but the eco-exploration of everyone! We hope you will enjoy (re-)discovering our mission through this new digital design.

Also, in order to mark the occasion of the redesign of the website, we are launching at the same time our teaser! This is a short video that aims to inspire web users, like Hollywood movie trailers. The incredible pictures and sound design, created by our partners Creatorz Deitz and Wavestudios, will make you travel to the edge of space!

The video is posted on our Facebook page with a contest to earn some visits of the solar airplane with the team. Participation is simple. Just “like” the page. Do not wait any longer and try your hand! The draw among all the likes of the page will be held on June 30 at noon.

Good surfing and thank you for your unfailing support! Do not hesitate to massively share our teaser and all good luck for the contest!

Raphael and the SolarStratos Team

It is an information that we wanted to share for a long time : we managed our first flight into the stratosphere! Saturday, May 7 at 9:45 am, the nacelle of our friends from Swiss Strato has taken off from Châtel-St-Denis with special passengers on board: two photovoltaic cells, a glass of white wine from Neuchâtel and … the famous cow Happy Lilly, Swiss ambassador and muse of Présence Suisse. After about 2 hours of ascension, the Swiss symbols have peaked at around 35’500 meters before the balloon exploded. Less than an hour later, thanks to the GPS installed in the nacelle, we were able to retrieve its content and experience the journey … My friends, what amazing images! And what exciting data for the scientists of the CSEM, our scientific partner, and our eco-exploration!

More down to earth but equally important for us, the Lausanne digital communication agency Breew joined our adventure as an Official Supplier. With the expertise of the boss, Thierry Weber, and his team, we will gain altitude on Mark Zuckerberg’s network and the Twittosphere! Thank you and welcome aboard SolarStratos, Breew!

See you in June for more adventures. Our little fingers tell us that two other launches will take place. Here are two clues: “web” and “synthesis”.

Thank you again for your support and feel free to share our adventures on social networks!

Raphael and the SolarStratos team

On Saturday 7 May 2016, between 9:45 and 12:00, from Châtel-St-Denis, we flew their first stratospheric mission, which consisted of sending a balloon equipped with two photovoltaic cells and cameras to an altitude of more than 35,000 metres, as well as a glass of wine and the Swiss ambassador Happy Lilly. The aim of the mission was to test the effects of the very high altitude on the solar cells of the future SolarStratos aircraft and to take pictures of Switzerland from the stratosphere.

It was 9.45 a.m. on Saturday, 7 May 2016, when we released a stratospheric balloon equipped with cameras to carry out various experiments. An hour and a half later, the balloon had risen to an altitude of over 35,000 metres and landed at around 12 noon with all the data from the flight. A successful first stratospheric mission for SolarStratos!

Here are the first impressions of Happy Lilly, pilot of the gondola: “I am resting after my first stratospheric flight. I am very happy to have contributed to these experiences and I am looking forward to my next flight on board SolarStratos, this time I will be accompanied by Raphaël.”

This flight will provide a better understanding of the behaviour of photovoltaic cells when they are subjected to extreme temperature differences and cosmic rays at high altitudes. These cells will be used to equip the future SolarStratos aircraft, the first stratospheric solar aircraft. This solar plane will climb to an altitude of more than 25,000 metres with the eco-explorer Raphaël Domjan at the controls.

This first stratospheric experiment, carried out in partnership with Swiss Strato and the CSEM, also enabled exceptional views of Switzerland and its snow-capped peaks to be taken from the stratosphere.

What a dynamic atmosphere at our partner PC-Aero in Germany! 3 screens have been mounted on the SolarStratos simulator, whose construction is coming to an end. We look forward to our future test flights with this technological gem!

A propos tests on the simulator, we were relieved to see that the test-spacesuit received from our Russian friends at Zvezda entered the cockpit as we did not know its exact dimensions (when pressurized) during the design of our plane. Raphael felt very well in his comfortable armor. While freedom of movement is not optimal yet, we are confident that we will succeed in creating an ideal spacesuit for our flights in the stratosphere.

See you in May for the rest of our adventures! Something tells us that two launches will occure. Here are two clues: “web” and “synthesis”. Follow us for more info!

Thank you for your support and share our eco-adventure without moderation!
Raphael and the SolarStratos team