Not steampunk, but intersting for those who like to theorize a world populated with airships. The amazing folks at JP Aerospace sent two airships two the edge of space this week at over 100,000 feet.
Link here: http://jpaerospace.com/blog/?p=3058
Later blog entries include various entries. JP Aerospace includes plans to eventually create a stratospheric station and airships capable of travel to orbit (ATO).
a guy and his kid managed to put together something similar using a weather balloon close to where I live:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmw9kucS3tw
they had just sent up a camcorder and GPS to find it once it came back down again, but still, impressive for a backyard project