Dramatic hitch for round-the-world balloonist

American balloonist Steve Fossett has been forced to carry out repairs outside his capsule, only hours after beginning his attempt to fly solo around the world.

He had to clamber out of the capsule to replace a broken antenna when he lost contact with mission control for almost four hours.

The Chicago millionaire took off from Northam, Australia, in his helium-filled Solo Spirit at dawn on his fifth attempt to become the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.

"After all this waiting, I'm really anxious to fly," he said minutes before taking off.

But hours into the flight, he lost telephone and e-mail contact with mission control at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and had to climb outside his 5ft-by-7ft (1.7 by 2.1-metre) capsule to replace the antenna and switch to a laptop computer.

Mission control director Joseph Ritchie said 57-year-old Mr Fossett maintained radio contact with air traffic controllers in Australia during the time he lost telephone and e-mail contact.

Mr Ritchie said: "We wish the phone was working better and the wind was blowing faster, but hey, that's weather."

Mission control spokesman Liam Otten said that after fixing the communication problem, the flight over Australia had gone smoothly.

Carried by high-altitude wind, Mr Fossett was crossing south-western Australia at about 25mph (40kph) and was projected to fly out across the south Pacific some time tonight. His speed is a little slower than the 35mph (55kph) that was predicted for this leg of the trip.

In addition to four previous solo record attempts, Mr Fossett also teamed up with Virgin tycoon Sir Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand, of Sweden, to try to circle the globe by balloon in 1998.