Can He Do It?

Posted May 24, 2008, 11:23 am in Extreme by Growing Bolder



Breaking News:
French skydiver Michel Fournier's massive helium balloon broke free from its moorings Tuesday morning, soaring into the sky without him. Fournier had planned to rise in a capsule about the size of a hot water tank that was to be attached to the balloon. After a two-hour ascent, he planned to jump fom the edge of space, breaking four world skydiving records.

The balloon is said to be worth $500,000. Combined with yesterday's failed attempt, the launch team may have gone through $1 million worth of balloons.The team is said to have back-up balloons on hand, but there is no word yet whether Fournier will proceed with another attempt.

64-year-old Fournier, a retired French Army officer, has spent two decades and nearly $20 million in a quest to break American Joe Kittinger's 48-year-old record for highest parachute jump.

Fournier hopes to attempt Le Grand Saut (The Great Leap) from the plains of northern Saskatchewan. He'll climb into the pressurized gondola of a 650-foot balloon and make a two-hour journey to 130,000 feet, almost 25 miles up, where he'll experience weightlessness. Then, if all goes well, he'll jump out of the capsule, wearing only a special suit and a parachute and plunge to earth. He'll be in free fall for about eight minutes. He would exceed the speed of sound within the first 40 seconds and eventually approach 1,000 miles an hour. His parachute is designed to open at around 20,000 feet.

The highest previous recorded jump from a balloon was performed in 1960 by Kittinger, a United States Air Force test pilot who leaped from 102,800 feet and exceeded 600 miles per hour before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet. He was down in less than 14 minutes.

Fournier and Kittinger correspond through e-mail. "I told him many years ago, it's very hostile," Kittinger said. "You're in a vacuum, and your whole life is dependent on the pressure suit working properly. If the pressure suit fails, you die."

Fournier's jump can set four records: fastest free fall, longest free fall, highest altitude for a human balloon flight and highest parachute jump. Fournier has attempted his stunt twice, but technical and weather-related problems foiled the efforts before he left the ground. The most recent attempt, in 2003, failed when his balloon ruptured before takeoff.

The jump, beginning from the outer reaches of the stratosphere about four times higher than the cruising altitude of a commercial jet, is his life's dream and could someday lead to rescuing astronauts in-flight, he said.

Pressed about his age, Fournier was quick to point out that American astronaut John Glenn returned to space at age 77."There is a heart attack risk up there, so we've done tests to ensure that his heart is capable of withstanding the pressure," said Henri Marotte, a specialist in space medicine at the University of Paris. "He's in very good physical condition."

Meet the record holder. Check out These Stunning Growing Bolder Exclusives on Joe Kittinger's Record Breaking Jump:

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