* Astronomy

Ordinarily, Felix Baumgartner would not need a lot of practice in the science of falling.
He has jumped off two of the tallest buildings in the world, as well as the statue of Christ in Rio de Janeiro (a 95-foot leap for which he claimed a low-altitude record for parachuting). He has sky-dived across the English Channel. He once plunged into the black void of a 623-foot-deep cave, which he formerly considered the most difficult jump of his career.
But now Fearless Felix, as his fans call him, has something more difficult on the agenda: jumping from a helium balloon in the stratosphere at least 120,000 feet above Earth.
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It was supposed to be another giant leap for man. It was more of a giant misstep.
Michel Fournier, a skydiver, was aiming to complete the world's highest skydive by leaping from the stratosphere at four times the height of a commercial jet's cruising altitude and plummet back to earth, breaking the sound barrier en route. In the end, the Frenchman failed to get even one foot off the ground...
The helium balloon that was to have transported his fibreglass phone-booth capsule to 130,000ft malfunctioned, soaring into the sky without its cargo and leaving the 64-year-old daredevil stranded in the wheat fields of western Canada, his lifelong dream in tatters.

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Weather permitting, 64-year-old Michel Fournier may already have climbed into his pressurized gondola and been carried for more than two hours by his 650-foot balloon to 130,000 feet (close to 25 miles high) above the earth -- where he may already have stepped out.

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If the weather co-operates, a giant metallic teardrop will rise into the sky over this Saskatchewan town Monday, just as the eastern horizon turns from black to red, and a silver-haired French skydiver will set off in search of three world records.
Two and a half hours later, if all goes as planned, 64-year-old Michel Fournier will open the door of the capsule hanging from that balloon at a world-record altitude of 130,000 feet -- roughly 40 kilometres -- and step out.

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