I think they're going for distance... The average altitude has been around 17,000 feet, so it won't be heading up until it bursts like some balloon flights do.I'm not sure that it is intended to go up, expand, break up and come down. I think they are trying to get some distance travelled out of it rather than height. At 1410 MST it is now going straight east at 133 kph so roughly 80 mph. Just NW of Minneapolis.