Pico was born on the launch field in Albuquerque 2023 on the Thursday morning during the Special Shapes day.
However, his week running up to this was anything but relaxed… He was finished in the UK on the Monday having been built in just three weeks! He was then rigged and inspected on the Tuesday and driven to London Heathrow later that night.
On Wednesday, he was airfreighted from London to Phoenix and the Skysafari® team drove from Albuquerque to Phoenix and back over night (18 hours) arriving just a couple of hours ahead of briefing Thursday am.
Based on an original idea by legendary ballooning photographer Bennie Bos, Pico is slightly larger than his penguin friends at 77,000 cubic feet but still weighs just 100KG.