[FPSPACE] more on Fournier and his jump scheduled for this morning

[Peter Pesavento]

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5i_3QfjUfGqJwoI-Gb8qlLHkniEvA

 

By the time I post this, the jump should have either gone off, or be halted.

 

There is a website devoted to the jump, but it has not been updated since
Sunday.

 

http://www.legrandsaut.org/index.php?lang=eng#
<http://www.legrandsaut.org/index.php?lang=eng> 

 

 


French skydiver makes final tests for record free fall attempt over Sask
Monday


1 day ago

NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. - Michel Fournier began final preparations Saturday
for a stunt that will, should all go well, end in the pre-dawn darkness
Monday with him rising slowly in a helium-powered balloon pod until he can
touch the very void of space - and then step off.

The 64-year-old French skydiver aims to free fall 40,000 metres (130,000
feet) from the stratosphere in a specially designed suit, helmet and
parachute to advance the cause of science and, in the process, break four
free fall records.

"The jump, based on weather conditions, is planned for Monday 4 a.m. local
time," Francine Lecompte-Gittins, spokesperson for the jump, said in an
e-mail Saturday.

She is one of an army of technicians, data crunchers, balloon and weather
specialists who have arrived at this city of 14,000 near the
Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary for Fournier's third attempt.

The first two - in 2002 and 2003 - ended when wind gusts shredded his
balloon before it even became airborne.

This time, the balloon is three layers thick and the plan is to go up before
the sun comes up Monday - when the skies are expected to be clear and,
hopefully, without a breath of wind.

Fournier, a former army paratrooper with more than 8,000 jumps under his
belt, hopes to bring back data that will help astronauts and others survive
in the highest of altitudes. He wants to also break the record for the
fastest and longest free fall, the highest parachute jump and the highest
balloon flight.

He'll be three-times higher than a commercial jetliner. A mountain climber
would have to ascend the equivalent of four Mount Everests stacked one on
top of the other.

It's expected to take him 15 minutes just to come down, screaming through
thin air at 1,500 kilometres an hour, - 1.7 times the speed of sound -
smashing through the sound barrier, shock waves buffeting his body, before
finally deploying his chute about 6,000 metres above the prairie wheat
fields.

When he does, if he does, the man whose record he is trying to eclipse will
be sitting at his home in Altamonte Springs, Fla. - near Orlando - waiting
for news.

Joe Kittinger set the record almost 50 years ago, in 1960. As a U.S. Air
Force captain, he leapt from a balloon at 31,000 metres, about
three-quarters of the height Fournier is now shooting for - as a research
experiment for the space program.

The 79-year-old - now retired but working as a writer and consultant while
still flying balloons and planes - said Fournier keeps in touch by e-mail.

"What I told him from the very beginning was that it's a very hostile
environment needing elaborate protection and equipment and a good team,"
said Kittinger in an interview from his home.

"If the pressure suit fails, you die very quickly. It's not simply just
making a skydive."

Fournier has made the jump his life's work at a cost of $12 million.

The French government had decided to experiment with ejections at
super-high-heights and Fournier was chosen to do the jumping. But when the
project was cancelled soon after, Fournier decided to continue his research
privately.

He had planned to make the jump in his native France, but the government
denied him permission, dubbing the project too dangerous.

He then came to North Battleford, an agriculture and transportation hub
northwest of Saskatoon. The surrounding area has few lakes and lots of open
land to go with an underused airport that serves as the perfect launch
point.

"It's exciting," said Julian Sadlowski, the mayor of North Battleford, who
made Fournier an honorary citizen this week.

"Saskatchewan is going to be recognized as the spot where they had the jump
from the highest height by man."

Sadlowski said he's known Fournier for a year and said the man has the fire
to succeed, even at great personal risk.

"He reminds me of a young boy who crawls up a tree and has to go right to
the end," said Sadlowski.

"He's so passionate about this jump."

Sadlowski said he'll be out at the airport Monday for the launch.

By the zero hour, Fournier will already have been breathing pure oxygen for
two hours to help his body adapt.

The balloon will then rise, taking more than two hours to reach its apex
before he steps out to pierce the sky in temperatures plunging to minus 65 C
and in pressures that, without a special suit, would quickly bring his blood
to a boil.

He'll be tracked with global positioning trackers, radar, a helicopter and a
Learjet. He expects to land within a 40-kilometre radius south of North
Battleford. If he lands unconscious, his team will have 15 minutes to get to
him before his air runs out.

Kittinger says should he reach the top, he'll be humbled by a panorama as
spectacular as it is deadly.

"It's beautiful," he said. "But it's very hostile." 

 

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