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NORTH BATTLEFORD, Sask. — Retired French paratrooper Michel Fournier's record-setting-skydive attempt in Saskatchewan was delayed twice Monday, first by cloud cover and then by high winds.

Mr. Fournier's team will make another attempt beginning at midnight Tuesday. The jump requires low winds and clear sky.

Mr. Fournier's launch crew had assembled at the North Battleford, Sask., airport shortly after midnight Monday, but decided to postpone the launch because of cloud cover.

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About 4 a.m. local time (6 a.m. ET), Mr. Fournier appeared in his space suit while the crew laid out the giant balloon on the main runway. Mr. Fournier began breathing pure oxygen about 5:30 a.m. to prepare for his flight.

Launch manager Dale Sommerfeldt said conditions by 6 a.m. looked nearly ideal for the launch by 6 a.m., so the preparations began in earnest.

But the balloon still had not lifted off at mid-morning. Some members of the launch team said there were complications but did not specify what they were. Later, the crew said wind was the main concern.

"We had to have a delay of two hours because of visibility. The winds were fine; however, we had too many clouds and we did not want to send the balloon up if we could not retrieve any images," said spokeswoman Francine Gittins.

"Consequently, the wind picked up in the morning and so now the wind is too strong for the balloon to be inflated."

By 8:30 a.m., the wind at the launch site — an old air force base in North Battleford — was blowing at about 17 kilometres an hour. Organizers said that could be dangerous when filling the balloon that takes 50 minutes to inflate and has a height of 90 metres, according to Mr. Fournier's website.

"If you have too much gusts or too much wind, we're not going to have control of that balloon and we need to have control," Ms. Gittins said after the launch was scrubbed.

"We were kind of hoping the wind might come down, but we decided not to take any risks."

Ms. Gittins said it was better to postpone liftoff than have the balloon go off course.

Mr. Fournier was scheduled to return to the tarmac early Tuesday. Environment Canada was calling for clear skies and light wind.

To launch the helium balloon that will lift him to 130,000 feet — in the stratosphere — Mr. Fournier and his team need surface winds of 13 kilometres an hour or less. They must also avoid upper-level wind shear that could damage the balloon.

If all goes to plan, Mr. Fournier will board the phone-booth-sized capsule connected to a giant helium balloon and ascend more than four times the height of Mount Everest. There, on the threshold of space, he will make some final checks, then step out the door to begin a 7½-minute free fall that will accelerate him to more than 1,500 km/h. If all goes well, he will land, get some high-paid speaking gigs and take his place in aviation history.

Mr. Fournier must breathe oxygen for two hours before he goes up in the balloon.

The ascent takes 2½ hours, but it will only take 15 minutes for him to return to Earth.

Mr. Fournier's first two attempts in 2002 and 2003 ended when wind gusts shredded his balloon before it even became airborne. This time, the balloon is three layers thick.

Launching a manned helium balloon such as Mr. Fournier's involves an intimidating set of risks — starting with the first seconds of the balloon's launch.

If the apparatus fails within the first 1,000 feet of ascent, there will not be enough time for Mr. Fournier to bail out, or for the balloon's parachute system to deploy. The engineers call this low-altitude segment the Dead Zone.

"When you've got a human being inside, you think hard about everything you do," launch director Ricardo Correa said. "There's no margin for error."

The balloon ride to 130,000 feet will take about 2½ hours. Then comes the most critical point of the jump: Because the air is so thin, he will not be able to correct his path by manoeuvring his body in the air — if he goes into a spin, he probably will not be able to recover before he blacks out from the force of acceleration. To prevent this, he will exit the capsule by simply leaning forward, since even a minor kick could initiate an unrecoverable tumble.

The physics of a high-altitude jump are completely different from those of conventional skydiving. There is no sensation of falling and no wind roar, because the air molecules are so far apart that they offer virtually no resistance.

After falling about 15,000 feet, Mr. Fournier will pass the speed of sound. Because the air is so thin, there will be no sonic boom — instead, the only indication will be a rippling shock wave that will pass over his body.

As he falls, the air around him will gradually thicken and slow his descent. He plans to open his parachute about 3,000 feet above the ground. (If the parachute fails, or if he passes out, he has a single backup that will automatically open at 1,000 feet.) His team estimates he will land within a radius of 40 kilometres.

After he jumps, the capsule will be separated from the balloon by remote control and three parachutes will lower it to the ground. The balloon itself will be punctured by remote control to release the helium, and will then take about 40 minutes to return to Earth.

Mr. Fournier will be tracked with both radar and a global positioning system. A helicopter and a Learjet will be stationed below him, and recovery teams will be on standby to pick him up as quickly as possible after landing. If he is unconscious when he lands, his team must find him and remove his helmet before his spacesuit's air supply runs out.

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