Winds Threaten Balloonist’s Takeoff

Uncooperative winds threatened to ground a fourth attempt by adventurer Steve Fossett to become the first person to fly a balloon around the world, organizers said. Fossett, 54, who planned to launch “Solo Spirit” from the western Argentine province of Mendoza as early as today will likely now have to wait until later in the week, one of his chief advisors said. “We really have nothing to work with until Thursday,” Bob Rice said about the winds in a conference call with reporters from Fossett’s “mission control” operation at Washington University in St. Louis. Fossett, a businessman, hopes to lift off from Argentina’s wine country before heading east across the Atlantic Ocean. He then plans to swing south to the tip of South Africa and cross Australia and New Zealand before heading out over the Pacific Ocean.