French skydiver looking to break some records.

[Don]

So yeah generally a French skydiver wants to break the records of:  fastest freefall, longest freefall, highest jump, and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon.

In order to do this he seeks to go practically to the edge of earths atmosphere and dive down to earth.
Though he has yet to break the records he's going to keep trying till he does.
(Detailed story below)

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080527/canada/canada_france_space_parachute

I think this is pretty awsome and I hope the guy is able to break these records.

[AmigaDragon]

Is this epic fail or just plain fail that he lost his balloon before he could get off the ground?

[Don]

I'm pretty sure that rates amongst epic fail but he's still trying, god speed to the man hopefully he makes it before he dies.

[Eibborn]

...Haha, it's pretty awful that I hear about that here. I live in Saskatchewan! I went to North Battleford on a field trip a few years ago.

Well, good luck to the guy. I hope he succeeds, 'cause failure looks kinda lethal!

[AmigaDragon]

I didn't read that article, just glanced at it long enough to know it's the same one that was on the TV news. What I'm wondering is when (if) he jumps, how does the gondola/basket/capsule (whatever you want to call it) get back down? Is there a pilot that will pilot it back down (controlling gas volume in the balloon? Will it detach the balloon and also parachute down?