Russian priest sets world record for solo air balloon circumnavigation

Russian balloonist Fedor Konyukhov — (Image credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images)

A 64-year-old Russian adventurer and Orthodox priest named Fedor Konyukhov landed in Australia Saturday and in doing so completed his record-setting hot air balloon circumnavigation. Konyukhov began his journey July 12 and traveled around the globe in just 11 days, 6 hours, living in a gondola measuring around 6 feet in each direction.

"He's landed, he's safe, he's sound, he's happy," said Konyukhov 's flight coordinator, John Wallington. "It's just amazing. It's fantastic — the record's broken, everyone's safe." Konyukhov landed cold and bruised but otherwise in good condition.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.