Wow. This is completely nuts.
Michel 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.
He intends to climb into the pressurized gondola of the 650-foot balloon, which resembles a giant jellyfish, and make a two-hour journey to 130,000 feet. At that altitude, almost 25 miles up, Fournier will see both the blackness of space and the curvature of the earth. He will experience weightlessness.
While I imagine it would be a pretty wild ride, there are some serious questions as to whether he will actually survive the "fall". Even though he insists this isn't about the world records he would break (there are at least four of them - not including the "World's Bravest -or Craziest- Old Guy"), I can't really see why anyone would want to do this.
Oh yeah, and there has been $20 million spent on this "adventure" already. I guess at least he won't be using gasoline - that would have jacked the project up to at least $30 million.
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