In 1931 Auguste Piccard ascended with a hot air balloon to a height of over 50,000 feet. What did these men witness? A curved horizon? No. According to the 1931 issue of popular science THIS is what they saw: [quote]"The story of their adventure surpasses fiction. During the ascent, the aluminum ball began to leak. They plugged it desperately with vaseline and cotton waste, stopping the leak. In the first half hour, the balloon shot upward nine miles. Through portholes, the observers saw the earth through copper-colored, then bluish, haze. [i][b]It seemed a flat disk with upturned edge."[/b][/i][/quote] Emphasis added You can read the entry itself in a picture of the article: imgur.com/gallery/miXLb It is interesting that the first, disinterested observers of earth describe it as "a disk with upturned edge". Makes you wonder doesn't it? Remember, this was in 1931, 27 years before the creation of NASA. And while Piccard was doubtlessly a follower of other dogmatic aspects of the science religion, he did not let is religious beliefs stop him from admitting what he saw with his own eyes.