Fossett begins global balloon odyssey

'Solo Spirit' marks Steve Fossett's fifth attempt to solo circumnavigate.

By staff and wire reports

NORTHAM, Australia -- U.S. millionaire businessman Steve Fossett has taken off in a giant balloon from the West Australian desert in his fifth bid to fly solo around the world.

The high-altitude balloon drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km (62 miles) east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m local time. (2300 GMT).

Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to poor weather, but with time running out before the arrival of the morning's hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch.

The 57-year-old former Chicago stockbroker waved to around 150 local residents as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days.

Fossett said he expected to cross Australia's eastern coast on Monday if all went well before flying on across the Pacific Ocean

"After all this waiting, I'm really anxious to fly," he said minutes before taking off.

Storm threat

Fossett is worried about catching a cold.

But the mission's chief meteorologist Bob Rice said that due to the delay in take-off, there was now a threat of thunderstorms on day two when Fossett was scheduled to pass over the Australian city of Brisbane heading out over the Pacific.

"Thunderstorms represent the primary threat," Rice said from mission control in Chicago after the launch.

The balloon's initial ascent was slow with the ground crew anxiously watching for any signs of problems, but everything appeared to go well.

The balloon massive scale -- it is 140 feet (43 meters) high and 60 feet (18 meters) wide -- make it vulnerable to high winds at launch.

Inflation of the balloon started Saturday night and continued into Sunday morning despite light winds that Fossett feared could topple the envelope.

Fossett said he was nervous about making another flight. "I am worried about having a cold. The thin oxygen up there makes it very dry and that can be hard on the nostrils and bronchials. I am afraid if you have a cold you could develop pneumonia."

"In the first night I will have to find out whether the equipment is working," he said before the launch.

Forssett has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world.

This year he decided to launch in Western Australia, some 600 km (400 miles) from the Indian Ocean, to have a better chance of avoiding thunderstorms in the South Pacific and gain time to detect problems while still over land.

But an attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart.

Global path

Fossett thought his solo circumnavigation campaign had ended, but repairs to the balloon and a new launch site saw the adventurer return to Australia to try again.

He will spend most of his time flying at altitudes of up to 30,000 feet (9,140 meters) in a cramped canary-yellow capsule.

It is designed to float and emit radio signals for rescuers if he is forced to ditch in the ocean.

Jet stream winds will propel the balloon around the world at speeds up to 130 mph (210 kph).

After leaving the Australian coast he plans to fly across the northern tip of New Zealand and on to Chile and fly over the Andes.

The balloon is then expected to drift around the tip of South Africa and then head directly across the Indian Ocean.

The cabin will be heated and he will survive on military-style food rations that heat themselves through a chemical reaction.

Boomerang

He also has on board a four-man life raft and a parachute as well as satellite navigation and communication equipment that will allow his control team at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to keep track of him and keep in touch via telephone and e-mail.

Fossett said the solo circumnavigation's elusiveness was also its attraction.

"When I first started making attempts to fly around the world in a balloon I thought it would be just a matter of get the equipment, get it up in the air and somehow I'd make it.

"Then after about 20 attempts by all teams combined ... we realized it was far more difficult."

Only one two-man team has ever flown a balloon around the world -- Swiss psychiatrist Bertrand Piccard and English balloon instructor Brian Jones who teamed up in March 1999 to steer the "Breitling Orbiter" balloon around the globe.

Fossett said he would take a boomerang, an Aboriginal curved hunting stick which returns when thrown, with him on the flight.

"I hope it works," he joked.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.