May 27, 2008
Le Grand Saut (The Great Leap)
20-Year Journey for 15-Minute Fall, NY Times
"He has spent two decades and nearly $20 million in a quest to fly to the upper reaches of the atmosphere with a helium balloon, just so he can jump back to earth again. Now, Michel Fournier says, he is ready at last. Joe Kittinger has the longest recorded jump from a balloon, from 102,800 feet in 1960. Depending on the weather, Fournier, a 64-year-old retired French army officer, will attempt what he is calling Le Grand Saut (The Great Leap) on Sunday from the plains of northern Saskatchewan."
Le Grand Saut (The Great Leap), Official website
Balloon blows away free fall record bid, CNN
"French skydiver Michel Fournier's bid for a record-breaking parachute jump from Earth's stratosphere was aborted Tuesday when the balloon that was to carry him into the far reaches of the sky slipped away from his flight crew."
Today's Video: Space Diving, earlier post
"First Man in Space - Skydiving From The Edge Of The World (Extended Version) // On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped his last ... all " Excelsior jump, doing so from an air-thin height of 102,800 feet (31,334 meters). From that nearly 20 miles altitude, his tumble toward terra firma took some 4 minutes and 36 seconds."
Posted by kcowing at May 27, 2008 8:32 AM
Apparently, the attempt has failed. It appears that during the final stages of ballon inflation the balloon separated from the crew capsule and flew away.
Posted by: mark at May 27, 2008 8:36 AMOf all the problems that he could have endured I would never imagine that one! Unbelievable disappointment!!
Posted by: Francisco at May 27, 2008 3:47 PMIt's better that the balloon & capsule accidently seperated when it did, during the filling of the balloon, rather than 20-30 seconds after the ascent had begun. Being 200-300 ft. off the ground is the worst possible place to be when this would occur, because it would not allow enough time for the jumper to successfuly respond by jumping out of the capsule and deploying his parachute, nor would it allow enough time for the falling gondola to be stopped by the outstreched parachute I assume it is suspended under, attached to the balloon at the load attaching point on the polyethylene balloon. An unchecked fall from that height would destroy the capsule and kill the occupant inside the capsule and just like Nick Piantanida, Michael would have entered the history books in the worst possible way. All that was lost is a balloon, some helium but not another life in this risky quest.
I am a skydiver, a parachute rigger and an engineer with experience on Apollo & Shuttle systems. I can't help but wonder what kind of quick disconnect device presumably failed and allowed this to happen. In applications like this where the disconnect device MUST work when called upon to do so and must NEVER function out of sequence, this is a very troubling event. I hope Michael and his team will delay another attempt until they properly correct this apparent fault in their flight hardware.
I was an eye witness to the Challenger disaster at KSC in January of 1986 and I would never again like to see anyone pay the ultimate price as they chase their dream. If the reader would like to better understand what Michael is attempting and the potential for failure, I suggest you read "MAGNIFICENT FAILURE" by Craig Ryan. It is an excellent account of Nick Piantanida's similar 1965-1966 American project that cost Nick his life on his 3rd attempt.
Jeff Pearce
Washington, North Carolina
USA
