By Donna Kettenbach
August 24, 2001
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Steve Fossett safely landed his Solo Spirit balloon in southern Brazil Aug. 17 after thunderstorms forced him to end his fifth attempt at the First Solo Balloon Flight Round The World (RTW).
Fossett is a University trustee and 1967 graduate of the Olin School of Business' MBA program.
After 10 hours of flying through thunderstorms, turbulence, lightning, snow and ice, Fossett's team at Mission Control in North Brookings Hall decided it was best to bring the balloon down.
"It made for a very stressful day for the pilot," Chief Meteorologist Bob Rice said.
Fossett also was headed into a stormy weather system that blocked safe entry into the South Atlantic Ocean, Rice said.
At a news conference the morning of the landing, Mission Control Director and longtime Fossett friend Joe Ritchie said, "There comes a point, when, even by round the world balloonists' standards, the risk is too high. To attempt the Atlantic, Steve is faced with three solid days flying over a front, and the icing risks, especially over the ocean, is not something we want to play around with. So he is going to go ahead and land."
Chancellor Mark Wrighton, part of the news conference, echoed Ritchie's sentiments.
"We're grateful for learning of Steve's safety, but we're disappointed that he didn't make it," Wrighton said. "Washington University students, faculty and staff were very much involved in the mission, and we appreciate the opportunity o be part of it."
Solo Spirit landed south of Bage, Brazil, close to the Uruguay border, about 7 a.m. CDT. Fossett phoned Project Director Tim Cole at Mission Control from the landing site, saying he was in good condition except for minor bruises and scrapes, after the capsule had dragged for about a mile after touching down.
The balloon's envelope caught on a row of trees in a farming field. Cole flew to South America to meet with Fossett, recover the balloon and capsule and ship them back to the United States.
"We had a really bad day yesterday," Fossett said via phone at another news conference later that morning. "I knew I was going to go through isolated thunderstorms, but it turned out to be a minefield of thunderstorms."
Before Aug. 16-17, Fossett encountered good weather during his 12-day flight. Other aspects of his journey were not optimal, though. After the launch was delayed six or seven hours due to ground winds, he missed a favorable trajectory, setting him on a course of slow winds. Fossett traveled between 19-70 mph, compared to a rate of up to 125 mph during his fourth RTW attempt, in July 1998.
A question of whether Fossett had enough oxygen for his RTW trip came up early in the flight. He had used five liters per minute instead of the expected two liters per minute because a pre-launch cold had slowed his acclimatization process. With the help of Marcus E. Raichle, M.D., at the School of Medicine and Robert B. Schoene, M.D., at University of Washington, Fossett cut his oxygen to the original dosage.
His altitude averaged about 22,000 feet, although he ascended to 27,000 feet to cross the Andes Mountains.
Fossett set three records on this flight. He now holds the duration record for the longest solo balloon flight: 12 days, 12 hours, 57 minutes; and is the first solo balloonist to cross South America by balloon and to cross five oceans.
For nearly two weeks, Mission Control was staffed around the clock with students, faculty, staff and members of Fossett's operations team. At times, it was a hub of activity; at others, it mirrored the winds --quiet and slow. The media center hosted four news conferences, received thousands of calls from local, national and international media and used translators to work with the South American press and aviation authorities.
Millions of people worldwide followed the flight on the Web site (solospirit.wustl.edu), which featured live Web cams of the launch site and of Mission Control, a listserv, frequent updates on Fossett's progress, twice-daily flight summaries and an array of photos.
The site had about 12.2 million hits; additionally, a special radio hotline with recorded interviews for the media had nearly 800 calls.
Fossett is making his way back to the United States, and he says he is not sure if he'll attempt another RTW flight.
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