April 21, 2024 (EIRNS)—Three Russian parachutists jumped from the stratosphere over the North Pole and landed successfully with just some frostbite to their faces. The jump coincided with the celebration of the Yuri Gagarin first human orbiting of the Earth on April 12, 1961. The three jumpers were cosmonaut Mikhail Korniyenko; space technology engineer Alexander Lynnik; and Denis Efremov, who works in stratospheric flights. They jumped near a Russian polar camp, which was supposed to be visited by an annual expedition, but which had to be cancelled by poor weather conditions.
The purpose was not simply a matter of derring-do, but was also meant to test a communications system from the North Pole, which seemed to have functioned successfully. The organizer of the mission, Nikita Tsaplin said, “Of course, our solution is a prototype…. It is not quite Iridium.”
