The flight platform is where the two balloonists will spend the entire trip.

Light and strong, it is designed to shield them from the elements, and survive a 20 miles per hour (32 kilometres per hour) impact when it splashes down in the Atlantic at the end of the record attempt.

The platform contains all the life-support systems and scientific experiments carried on the trip.

If an emergency arose and the balloon had to be separated from the platform, stabilising parachutes would be opened, enabling the balloonists to fall to 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) at around 150 mph (241 kph).

From there cargo parachutes would bring the two men safely back down to Earth.