If you jump out of a hot air balloon, are you traveling?
Who cares. A French skydiver is looking to break four free fall records today, and is about to jump out of a balloon 25 miles above Canada. That’s 131,000 feet (kinda makes that 12,000 footer you did over Australia look pretty weak, huh?)
CNN is following the jump live. Click on the banner at the top of the screen.
Michel Fournier, 64, is taking a helium-powered balloon “pod” pretty much to the edge of the atmosphere, CNN says. He’ll wear a special suit to guard against temperatures plunging to near 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The free fall is expected to take 15 minutes.
The records Fournier is looking to break are fastest free fall, longest free fall, highest jump and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon, CNN says.
Fournier has spent a fortune ($20 million) on this jump. He already holds a French record for highest jump with a parachute (40,000 feet). Guess he really wanted to out do himself.
Check out the jump’s official blog here.