TECHNOLOGIES
OUR HISTORY
Invention of the hot-air balloon
by the Montgolfier brothers and the gas balloon by Pilâtre de Rozier.
Escape
Ernest Cezanne, ancestor of Vincent Farret d’Astiès, made it possible to escape enemy fire during the Siege of Paris by taking off from the Gare d’Orleans in a balloon 16 meters in diameter, inflated with lighting gas.
Stratosphere
The Swiss pioneer Auguste Picard reaches
16,000 meters (52,500 ft) above Augsburg, Germany, becoming the first living being to reach the stratosphere.
Water on Mars
Audouin Dollfus rises to an altitude of 14,000 meters (46,000 ft) with a telescope and detects the presence of water on Mars.
CNES
Created under the initiative of the scientific community in the early 1960s, (even before the founding of the CNES) the balloon program consists of the design and operation of aerostatic vehicles to carry scientific instruments.
Creation of Zephalto

VOYAGE
The first Zephalto voyagers take off into the stratosphere.