Up To The Stratosphere, Jeannette Ridlon Piccard

January 5, 1895 High altitude balloonist Jeannette Ridlon Piccard was born. Piccard was the first American woman to earn a balloon license and the first to fly into the stratosphere, achieving an altitude of 10.9 miles over Lake Erie. The flight was planned with support from Dow Chemical, Goodyear, and the National Geographic Society but  “the National Geographic Society would have nothing to do with sending a woman—a mother—in a balloon into danger” Piccard observed. All three pulled their funding. Piccard eventually got the balloon off the ground with the help of several small Detroit companies and by selling her story to newspapers. Piccard later became one of the first women ordained as an Episcopal priest.