1st stratospheric skydive by a woman delayed to 2026, Hera Rising says
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The historic first skydive by a woman from the stratosphere will wait an extra year.
Hera Rising, a venture by the non-profit Rising United, plans to send one of three highly experienced skydivers preselected last year into the stratosphere via balloon, from where they will then jump back to Earth. But the costly and complex nature of the project will bring a one-year wait to 2026, instead of 2025.
"We are still in the midst of fundraising for the project, and while we have positive momentum we haven't closed the full amount necessary yet," a spokesperson told Space.com via e-mail. (Representatives were not immediately available for an interview, they added.)
"Given that the jump needs to be done in spring or fall for safety/weather reasons, and the development and training time necessary, it looks like it will most likely be in 2026," the e-mail added. "We remain positive and encouraged by the reception we are getting from potential investors, and hope to have further announcements we can share with you soon."
New aerospace projects commonly run into snags due to funding or technical difficulties, given they often use new technology that requires a lot of funding to develop. After that, development proceeds at a somewhat uncertain pace as engineers are learning and testing as they go.
Even NASA has faced development issues on new programs recently, including delays to the first two crewed Artemis program missions expected to bring humans to the moon starting in 2025, a year later than expected.
Long-running programs in space can also encounter schedule snags. The agency is reconsidering its International Space Station (ISS) schedule this month as Boeing's Starliner undergoes a lengthy delay in landing its first human mission. Veteran SpaceX is also performing a mishap investigation as it seeks to recover its ISS astronaut and cargo launches following a rare failure of its Falcon 9 rocket during a satellite launch last week.
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Rising United was aiming to raise $750,000 on Kickstarter last year. The results of that fundraise are now private, as the page requires a login to view. The money was needed to bankroll the design of the mission and the spacesuit, along with an English- and Spanish-language curriculum for students in Grades 5 to 8, and some marketing materials, organizers told Space.com in 2023.
"We're working with all types of schools ... really targeting especially schools that have large, diverse populations," curriculum designer Diana Lockwood-Bordaña, a female and Latina educational Ph.D. and author of "A Steam Mindset" (2022, independently published), told Space.com in 2023.
The selected skydivers are Eliana Rodriquez (who has ancestry in Colombia), Diana Valerín Jiménez (ancestry in Costa Rica) and Swati Varshney (ancestry in India). After the skydiver is selected from the trio, the other two will remain in the mission for publicity and to provide ground support during the mission.
The high-altitude suit used on the mission is expected to be from Paragon Space Development Corp., whose accomplishments include the hardware for a record-breaking, 25-mile (41-kilometer) jump from the stratosphere by Alan Eustace in 2014.
