NORTHAM, Australia (AP) — So far, so good. Adventurer Steve Fossett drifted high above the Australian coast on Wednesday, after launching his sixth bid to become the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon.
“I’m so used to having all kinds of problems with the equipment; it’s just a pleasure to have everything running so well,” Fossett said aboard his cramped cabin on the balloon, which he launched at 0137 GMT Wednesday. “It’s great to have everything working so well.”
About 12 hours into his flight, Fossett had traveled nearly 700 miles and was drifting uneventfully at 59 mph just off Australia’s southern shore, his mission control center at St. Louis’ Washington University reported at early afternoon GMT Wednesday.
Air-traffic control coordinator Kevin Stass called Fossett’s latest venture “remarkably uneventful, and I’m touching wood when I say this.”
Luc Trullemans, the mission’s chief meteorologist, said Fossett ideally would reach New Zealand in two to three days, then cross the South Pacific and reach the coast of Chile in six days. Fossett’s goal is to complete the trip in 15 days.
Fossett, a 58-year-old investment tycoon with a yearning for adventure, clambered into his closet-sized capsule around dawn wearing a parachute and crash helmet. Then, as winds that had delayed his launch for hours dropped, he fired propane burners to heat the helium and air filling his 42-meter balloon and rose into the blue skies over this western Australian farming town.
In comments on the mission’s Web site, mission director Joe Ritchie described the launch as “almost spookily good” despite the wind.
Ritchie said Fossett’s preparations had been meticulous and now he was dependent on high altitude winds to propel his balloon 18,000 miles eastwards around the world.
“At the end of the day, you’re still up there with the wind. That’s the nature of the case. You can’t predict that far out,” Ritchie said.
Fossett holds world records connected to balloons, sailboats and airplanes. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed fourth in the Iditarod dogsled race in 1992 and participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996.
He describes flying a balloon solo around the world as one of aviation’s last great challenges.
He’s certainly determined to crack it. Among hair-raising ends to his previous five attempts, he’s plummeted out of the sky into the Coral Sea and been forced to ditch the balloon in a Brazilian cattle ranch.
A balloon already has flown around the globe: Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard and Englishman Brian Jones completed the trip as a team in 1999.
Fossett’s last attempts, the one that ended in the Brazilian field, lasted 12 days, making it the longest-ever solo balloon flight.
But it also was plagued by worries that Fossett did not have enough oxygen. This time, he is taking twice as much.
While airborne, Fossett sits in a closet-sized Kevlar and carbon capsule under the balloon breathing oxygen through a mask and eating military-style rations. The balloon will drift at about six miles above sea level for most of the flight.
Fossett will take short naps and maybe get four hours of sleep each day. The cramped capsule is full of sophisticated communications and navigational equipment, including satellite phones and global positioning system equipment.
Ritchie said Fossett’s backers remain undaunted by his five previous failures.
“I think, maybe, we’re all just dumb. I don’t know,” he said.
