Description

Stratospharenflug is a German board game produced to celebrate the first human accent into the Stratosphere On 27 May 1931 by Auguste Piccard and Paul Kipfer

The game is a simple roll and move in both a horizontal and vertical directions. The game board has a grid overlaying a landscape with red and blue numbers along the Y and X- axis (similar to the game Battleship). The dice is marked on three sides with red numbers (1 to 3) and the other sides marked with blue numbers (1 to 3).
Players start at the bottom taking turns. If the dice shows a red number, a player ascends vertically, if it shows a blue number, then the player moves to the right into the landscape. Depending on the coloured numbers on the dice, players will ascend and travel right across the board. Once a player ascends to red 16 they are at the highest altitude and can go no higher. If a player has already reached red 16 and rolls red again, they must miss a turn.
To win the game the players in turn continue to roll the dice for a blue number and move to the right. This is continued until number Blue 30 and Red 16 is reached (top right corner). Whoever reaches this number first is deemed the winner.
One space on the game board shows a meteor (Red 9 - Blue 18). If a player lands on this square the player is out of the game, because his balloon burns as a result of being struck by the meteor.

The game celebrates a milestone in human endeavor. The front box shows the yellow balloon and black and silver capsule that Piccard and his assistant used in 1931. They were the first people to visually observe the curvature of the earth.

Of interest to other board games, Auguste Piccard was the inspiration for Professor Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin and Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek was named after one or both of the twin brothers.