What can I say about "20-Year Journey for 15-Minute Fall" reported by The New York Times? No matter what the motives are, and who says what, just keep my fingers crossed and pray for Michel Fournier's success of his Le Grand Saut (The Great Leap) . Fournier is retired and used to be a paratrooper, among other roles in the French army.Here is a quick summary of the quest.
| preparation time | 20 years |
| expenses | 20 million US dollars |
| gears | special space suit and a parachute |
| tool | gondola of the 650-foot balloon, sealed, pressurized and equipped with oxygen |
| height | 130,000 feet (about 20 miles) |
| time up | 2 hours |
| time down | 15 minutes |
| highest speed | 1,000 miles an hour (breaking the sound barrier) |
| parachute open height | around 5,000 feet |
| danger above 40,000 feet | not enough oxygen to breathe could experience a fatal embolism decompression sickness |
| danger above 12 miles | should his protective systems fail, his blood could begin to boil |
| previous trials | twice, with the last one failed from balloon rupture |
| preparation activities | more than 8,000 jumps, with the highest being more than 39,000 feet (French record) as compared to 12,000 to 13,000 feet for standard sky dive |
| competitor | Steve Truglia (45-year-old movie stuntman and a former member of the British Special Forces) planned a similar jump over the United States in July |
| previous record | in 1960 by Joe Kittinger (United States Air Force test pilot), from 102,800 feet and exceeded 600 miles per hour before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet, in less than 14 minutes down time. |
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