Following the flight over the Matterhorn on July 18—featured on the front page of the Financial Times Weekend—SolarStratos has completed another highly successful preparatory flight on the eve of August 1st. Despite less-than-ideal conditions on Thursday, July 31, 2025—particularly in terms of thermal updrafts—Raphaël Domjan took off from Sion for a 2-hour and 31-minute flight over the Alps, reaching 6,589 meters, the highest altitude ever achieved by HB-SXA. This performance surpasses that of Klaus Ohlmann (6,376 m), positioning SolarStratos as now the second-highest manned solar-powered aircraft in history. With the required authorization in hand, the entire team is now ready and awaiting a favorable weather window for its record attempt at 10,000 meters above the Swiss Alps—surpassing SolarImpulse (9,235 m).
