[Previous entry: "For Your Holiday Eye Candy Pleasure ..."] [Next entry: "Octane Overload"]

05/27/2008: "Next Time, Try A Leash"

We've all watched a NASA space launch. It's a model of efficiency - your tax dollars at work. Everyone knows their job and does it with precision and efficiency, and it takes something pretty horrific to cause a failure.

Civilian efforts often try to mirror NASA and their methods, and sometimes they succeed. Then there are those that don't ...

Michel Fournier is a 64-yr-old French skydiver and former paratrooper. His dream has been to break the world record for the highest jump ever, and he's been pursuing the attempt for many years. It's been expensive, upwards of $20 million, and he has sold all of his possession to finance the effort.

Not everyone has been supportive of him, though, and the French government refused him permission to launch the high-altitude balloon from which he needs to jump. The Canadians aren't so tight-assed, though, and let Fournier launch from a remote corner of Saskatchewan.

Today was the big day, and before dawn the process of inflating the giant balloon began. Shortly before 5 AM, spirits were high at the launch site, as documented in Fournier's blog:

Great news ... We just started to inflate the balloon. Its 4h15 local an will take about 45 minutes. Thereafter, Michel will start his ascent which will take about 2h15 and after taking a great LOOK at the curvature of the earth and looking at the black of space unlike we see the blue sky. Michel will jump. He has a camera on him and he will be able to film. Furthermore, Clay center is filming and with the telescopic camera that they have (best in the world) we will have outstanding images. Will keep you posted

Unfortunately, the good news ended there. It was only a few minutes later that the balloon slipped away from the handlers and rose gracefully into the sky - without Fournier! The frustrated Frenchman waved to onlookers and joined the caravan to chase down the errant balloon, which finally landed 40 km away.

This is not the first failed attempt for Fournier, who tried in 2002 and 2003, when his earlier balloon was destroyed. Even yesterday his launch attempt was scrubbed due to weather. There's a lot of risk associated with a jump like this - at 25 miles up, you don't last long if things go wrong. It doesn't bode well if they can't even handle the balloon launch ...