The Red Bull Stratos team, which is preparing to beat a 52-year-old free-fall record with a jump from a balloon at 120,000 feet, cancelled a test flight this week when the balloon failed to operate properly. The team had planned to send their capsule to 60,000 feet above Roswell, N.M., where Felix Baumgartner would jump out to practice the fall back to earth. The test was rescheduled for Wednesday morning using a backup balloon, but fog at the landing site canceled it. The team plans to try again at 7 a.m. local time on Thursday morning, according to Baumgartner’s Facebook page.
The record-breaking jump from 120,000 feet is expected to take place sometime this summer. The ascent should take about three hours, then Baumgartner is expected to experience nearly six minutes of free fall before deploying his parachute. The free-fall record is currently held by Joe Kittinger, who is an advisor to the project. He jumped from a height of 102,800 feet in 1960.
