Official News - page 6

REAL LIFE NEWS: SKYDIVER PLANS TO BREAK FREEFALL RECORD

by Hazed

It sounds totally insane, but a skydiver plans to jump head first out of a weather balloon from the edge of space in a bid to break the sound barrier - and several records. He'll make this incredible leap from 25 miles above the Earth, and plummet downwards at more than 1,000mph, facing external temperatures of minus 100c - while inside his carbon-fibre suit it will be a stifling 65c, which is almost 150 farenheidt.

And even more amazing, he's not a young daredevil, he's 63 years old!

The former paratropper, Michel Fournier, aims to become the first person to break the sound barrier in free-fall, and to break records for the longest sky dive, the highest parachute jump, and the highest altitude achieved by a human in a balloon.

Back in the 1980s, the Frenchman was one of three candidates selected to take part in a military endurance test to see whether a parachutist could descend from 125,000 feet - that's almost 24 miles. But the project was shelved in 1988, so Michel has decided to go it alone, and he hopes to make the jump sometime next month, weather permitting, over the Great Plains of Saskatchewan in Canada.

If he succeeds, the fall will take around eight and a half minutes - six and a half of those will be freefall. If he fails, he'll probably break a lot more than records! I'll report on the jump if it happens next month.

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