Balloon bid No 6 takes off

AMERICAN adventurer Steve Fossett launched his latest solo bid tofly round the world in a Bristol-made balloon early today.

His silver balloon, the Bud Light Spirit of Freedom, created byBedminster-based Cameron Balloons, took off over an Australianfarming town after a long delay because of wind conditions.

Hundreds of spectators cheered as the 58-year-old investmenttycoon left the ground in his sixth attempt to become the firstperson to fly around the world alone in a balloon.

Fossett's 140ft-high balloon lifted off at 9.37am Australian time,according to his mission control at Washington University in StLouis.

He climbed to 21,000 feet and just over an hour later wastravelling east over Australia at over 50 knots and had coverednearly 95 miles.

Fossett hopes to reach New Zealand in two to three days, and thencross the Pacific and reach the coast of Chile in six days. His goalis to complete the trip in 15 days Hannah Cameron, of CameronBalloons, said: "It's just tremendous.We are very pleased he has setoff on his latest attempt and wish him the best of luck.

"He has used one of our balloons on each attempt, but each balloonis different - we modify them as we learn.We will be following hisprogress and receiving regular updates from mission control."

Last July, bad weather forced him to crash-land his balloon inBrazil after 12 days.

The trip was the longest solo balloon flight.

A team has already flown a balloon around the globe: Brian Jones,from Wiltshire, and Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard completed thetrip in 1999 in the Breitling Orbiter 3, also made by CameronBalloons.