Skydiver postpones jump from edge of space

A French skydiver will try again tomorrow to make history by free falling 130,000 feet from the stratosphere in a specially designed suit, helmet and parachute in a bid to break four records.

Michael Fournier, aged 64, planned to make the attempt today in Canada, but had to postpone his plans because of wind conditions.

Mr Fournier wants to break the record for the fastest and longest free fall, the highest parachute jump and the highest balloon flight. He also hopes to bring back data that will help astronauts and others survive in the highest of altitudes.

An army of technicians, data crunchers, balloon and weather specialists arrived recently in North Battleford, a town of 14,000 near the Saskatchewan-Alberta boundary, for Mr Fournier’s third attempt.

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

Mr Fournier had planned to make the jump in his native France, but the government denied him permission because it believed the project was too dangerous. He then came to North Battleford, an agricultural and transportation hub northwest of Saskatoon.

A statement on Fournier’s website said today’s postponement was due to unfavourable wind conditions. More details about tomorrow’s launch were to be released tonight.

The capsule was taken back into an airport hangar and Fournier was seen leaving the launch site.

“We have a better balloon now than we had before and that’s what caused us problems before. So we’re hoping this time will be a success,” a spokesman for the attempt said.

“Right now it looks like it’s just the weather that’s going to bother us.”

Mr Fournier, a former army paratrooper with more than 8,000 jumps under his belt, will 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 is expected to take Mr Fournier 15 minutes just to come down, screaming through thin air at 932 mph – 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 yards above the prairie wheat fields.