Take a Balloon Ride up to 85,945 Feet

This photo was taken from an air balloon hovering over 85,000 feet from earth.  Note that the balloon was not manned, but this is the next logical step.  Why spend millions on a space trip when you could take an air balloon to space? 

“Images were taken at 2 minute intervals. The balloon was launched from a farm near Northwood, ND, and recovered by Gently, MN. The flight lasted two hours, but there was only enough film for the first 72 minutes. This flight carried two cameras, one pointing straight down and the other horizontally out the side. Each camera was loaded with a 36 exposure roll of 100 ASA Kodak color print film. Each camera was tested with a ground exposure, and the horizontal camera took an aditional picutre when I was calibrating the servo. None the less, the horizontal camera took a couple less photos than expected. If the malfunction was due to a frozen camera, servo, etc. is not currently known.”