French skydiver Michel Fournier will make a second attempt Tuesday at his historic 40-kilometer (25-mile) leap out of a balloon at the edge of the stratosphere back to Earth, reported AFP.
The 64-year-old parachutist was forced to postpone his jump Monday at the last minute due to high winds, but his team said the weather looked good for Tuesday and the record-breaking attempt should go ahead.
"Today, like for the launch of a space shuttle, it was an attempt. Tomorrow will be the good one," Fournier said after Monday's aborted dawn venture at North Battleford in Saskatchewan, in western Canada.
Fournier had been tucked into the cabin of a helium balloon, inhaling canned oxygen to purge his blood of nitrogen to lessen the risk of an embolism caused by varying atmospheric pressures, when Monday's jump was suddenly called off.
His spokeswoman Francine Gittins said the jump was initially delayed because clouds hampered visibility, and increasing winds caused it to be abandoned.
While Fournier's team briefly considered pressing ahead despite the wind, "we decided not to take the risk, because tomorrow's weather is (forecast to be) excellent," she said.
Fournier has said it was his life's dream to make the jump, which will begin at a point four times higher than the cruising altitude of a commercial jet.
He has had two unsuccessful tries before, in 2002 and 2003. His balloon tore the last time, but he bought a new one for this trial.
Fournier is vying to break four world records: fastest freefall, longest freefall, highest jump, and highest altitude reached by a man in a balloon. His efforts could also some day lead to rescuing astronauts in-flight.
He will be wearing a pressurized suit capable of withstanding temperatures of minus 100 degrees Celsius (minus 148 Fahrenheit) as he hurtles to Earth, and will carry with him sophisticated camera equipment.
This will record key moments of the jump, particularly when he breaks the sound barrier at 35,000 meters.
The first part is the most dangerous part of the venture -- if Fournier loses consciousness during the jump, his parachute will automatically open, but it will be impossible to eject from the balloon during the ascent.
The team is getting ready for a 4:00am departure Tuesday (1000 GMT). The ascent will take more than two hours, and the actual jump, about ten minutes.
Fournier plans to land some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest of North Battleford, where a helicopter would be waiting to pick him up.
The remote location was chosen because it is sparsely populated, so if something goes wrong, a crash is unlikely to hurt anyone on the ground.
Before Fournier, in 1960 American Joseph Kittinger jumped from 31,333 meters as part of a medical experiment, and in 1962 Russian Evgueni Andreiev jumped from 24,483 meters to set a world free-fall record.
Fournier noted Monday that since Kittinger's jump, many other people had tried to break the record but had failed.
"Without being conceited, I think that tomorrow I will take-off at 4:00 am and prove that it is possible to jump from 40,000 meters," he said.