Among the six people in the class are Jeff Van Meter and his friend Danny Becker.
VOA: special.2010.12.27
This pending move back to planetary science from earth sub-orbit comes on the heels of improvements in pointing systems and instrument technologies that will allow ground-based controllers to fine-tune balloon payloads to include one-meter class optical and infrared telescopes.
Also competing were two examples of the 12-meter class that dominated the America's Cup competition in the decades after World War II and an entire fleet of 6-meters--aristocratic racing machines that have been the favorites of such yachtsmen as the kings of Spain, Denmark and Norway.
In the next decade, Genzel hopes the planned next generation of 30 meter-class telescopes will enable black hole astronomers to test general relativity around the event horizon itself.