Killer Balloons

This is an interesting article on MSNBC.com about companies still working with dirigibles... they're being explored as ways to provide sub-orbital communications relays above the battlefield, or as spy vehicles, capable of staying aloft over a target for up to a year, well above the range of any weapons. They're also being considered as safer, albeit slower ways to get to and from space, and as floating platforms at the edge of space that can be used as waypoints for vehicles traveling into space. Weird.