It is also the only one of the six contenders which has an envelope filled solely with helium, which expands as it rises until it reaches the huge capacity of 39.5 million cubic feet.The gondola has life-support systems, electricity, running cameras and scientific data gathering machines It is pure white to reflect solar radiation.. He plans to launch from a gravel pit in Rockford, Illinois, where he can inflate his 420,000 cubic feet envelope away from the gusts of wind that tore Branson’s Virgin Challenger away from its moorings.Dymocks Flyer: Bob Martin, John Wallington.A project on a different dimension to its rivals, the Dymocks Flyer is less a high-altitude balloon, more a basket-in-space.Australian Wallington and American Martin are to float 24 miles to the outer atmosphere, where they will conduct experiments for Nasa.Their balloon is also the only one to be launched from the southern hemisphere, with a route plan running from east to west. It is to take off from Albuquerque, New Mexico.J Renee: Kevin Uliassi.The second solo flyer, Uliassi will follow the low-tech and low-altitude strategy of his compatriot Fossett.With a balloon named after his wife, an envelope resembling a “giant, white ice-cream cone,” and a cramped unpressurised gondola made out of foam, Uliassi is an unlikely contender for the $1m (pounds 600,000) prize.But he is an experienced balloonist. Fossett’s theory is that the simpler the balloon, the less there is to go wrong.Breitling Orbiter: Bertrand Piccard, Wim Verstraeten and Andy Elson.The team includes a Briton – Elson, a Belgian – Verstraeten and a Swiss – Piccard.Their balloon will taxi around the Alps from the Swiss village of Chateux d’Oex, and across the Mediterranean, before hitting a jet stream above north Africa.It is another large high-tech air-conditioned affair, with a 500,000 cubic feet envelope, containing helium and hot air.Their round-the-world attempt in January ended when a 69p fuel clip leaked kerosene into the gondola, forcing the Breitling team to descend.Global Hilton: Dick Rutan and Dave Melton.Aviation adventurer Rutan is a veteran of long-distance flights, being the first man to fly non-stop around the world in a plane, without refuelling: the Voyager, an ungainly craft with long droopy wings was designed by his brother Burt.On this flight, he will be carried by a balloon made by Bristol-based Cameron Balloons, whose Roziere helium and hot-air envelopes are being used by all teams, except Virgin and Dymocks.The 420,000 cubic feet balloon is the third high-tech, high-altitude craft, with an air-conditioned gondola, which will fly near the heart of the jet stream at 30,000 feet. He holds the record for a long-distance balloon flight, sailing round half the world in January, from the US to India.Unlike Branson and his high-tech giant balloon, Fossett takes a distinctly low-tech approach.He will fly lower, at around 20,000 feet, and use an unpressurised gondola, using portable oxygen supplies and wearing thermal underwear to keep warm rather than air-conditioning His balloon will be smaller at 350,000 cubic feet. I have always thought that one of the balloon teams would be successful this year.

The technology is progressing every year.”The teams are:Virgin Global Challenger: Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Rory McCarthy.Mr Branson has spent hundreds of thousands of pounds attempting to become the first trans-global balloonist, employing Swedish balloon designer Per Lindstrand to create the largest balloon on earth.With a capacity of 1.1 million cubic feet and a height of 194 ft, the Challenger is large enough to support a crew of three and a gondola comfortable enough to withstand the cruel temperatures of the upper atmosphere.It contains caviar, champagne and Christmas pudding, in case festive celebrations have to take place in the sky.Equipment has been added to prevent a repeat of January’s near-disaster, when the Challenger fell to earth because its helium gas contracted at night.Solo Spirit: Steve Fossett.Seen by some balloon commentators as the favourite. It takes four months to deliver the fabric we are now using.”Even if Branson’s team does decide to repair the old balloon, the earliest likely launch date would be the end of the week, by which time one of five other rival balloon teams could well have seized what the National Geographic magazine has called “the last great aeronautical adventure within the earth’s atmosphere”.A spokesman for the Breitling Orbiter team, involving Briton Andy Elson, said it was possible their balloon might launch from Switzerland tomorrow.And solo balloonist Steve Fossett, who has already flown a balloon halfway round the world, is ready to lift off from St Louis, Missouri, as soon as the weather is favourable.All six teams are looking for calm, low-level winds to allow their balloons to rise swiftly high into the earth’s atmosphere.For a successful journey, this has to be combined with access to a jet stream, high-altitude winds that can blow at 250 mph.Weather experts have told five of the six teams to make their flights in winter, when the jet streams are faster and less prone to breaking up, and there are fewer thunderstorms.If a round-the-world trip is made, there is doubt that the Virgin team might make the attempt at all Mr Branson said: “That we would review at the time. A new balloon would not be available until the third week of January.He said: “We have a feeling that the Algerians, in trying to be helpful, have done quite a lot of damage to the balloon We would have liked them to have left it We know it landed intact in the desert It was unceremoniously removed. We will be inspecting it over the next couple of days.”It’s not as good as we had hoped.

We will decide early next week whether we have to build a new one or not.”If we do, the fabric will not be as good and we would have 20 per cent less time in the air. The envelope drifted into Algerian airspace and crashed.
Yesterday the Virgin boss said that the envelope could be so badly ripped that it might have to be replaced. Richard Branson fears that his dream of flying in the first balloon to circumnavigate the globe has been shattered because Algerians have damaged the Virgin Challenger by moving it from where it crashed in the Sahara desert – leaving the competition open to the tycoon’s five rivals. Mr Branson’s balloon broke its moorings at its launch site in Morocco last week while it was being inflated. They then log on and see the card, and all free of charge.If you’ve happened to pick one of the advanced options, the card may well play a tune or have an animated scene, rather than the plain seasonal pictures typical of conventional Christmas cards.The obvious advantage to these cards are they are a bit more lively than traditional cards – the drawback being that, unless you have a colour printer, the only way they’ll ever go on your mantelpiece is if you’ve got one wide enough to hold a PC..

You then pick a picture, select a suitable verse and add your own short message. After entering the recipient’s e-mail address, all that is left to do is to sign and send it.The actual “posting” of the card involves the operator of an Internet website sending an e-mail to the recipient and notifying them there is a card waiting on the website for them. “Although we have no way of knowing, my guess is that this is due to people realising they have missed the posting dates for Christmas and so sending e-mail Christmas cards, children e-mailing Santa and people sending junk mail, like the e-mail snowballs which seemed to be in vogue last year.”Sending the basic version of an e-mail Christmas card involves logging on to a website which offers the festive service. Ben Knox, managing director of Direct Connection, an Internet service provider, says there has been a noticeable increase in e-mail traffic across the Internet at this time of the year.”Over the past three years we have noticed an increase in Internet traffic of about 20 per cent in the two weeks leading up to Christmas,” he said. The new version comes via the world-wide web and, if you so desire, can play an assortment of tunes from “Jingle Bells” to “Joy to the World” as well as having animated graphics of dancing snowmen or laughing Santas. The cards are available at various sites on the Internet, and all you have to do is point your computer in the right direction and off you go.
The popularity of electronic cards has been growing over the past few years. The e-mail Christmas card has arrived and it’s not your plain little black-on-white text message.