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SAT写作素材分享Adventurer Fossett launches solo balloon trip The giant high-altitude balloon, bathed in the deserts golden morning light, drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m. . Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to unfavourable winds, but with time running out before the arrival of the mornings hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch. Fossett waved to around 100 townsfolk as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days. I am a bit nervous about the first night, Fossett said before take-off. On the first night I will find out if everything works, if there are any leaks in the balloon, if there are any failures in communications and if the all-important heating works, he said. The millionaire former stockbroker has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world. The last attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart. Fossetts fourth solo bid ended in near disaster in 1998, when a thunderstorm off Australias northeastern coast shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet into the Coral Sea. He was unhurt. | 
