Article content

Balloon guy Dan Boria who gained notoriety during last year’s Stampede is looking to soar much higher by next year.

Boria shocked the city last summerwhen he launched himself several hundred metres above the city’s skyline while sitting in a lawn chair tied to 120 oversized helium balloons.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Balloon guy ready to soar to outer atmosphere Back to video

The incident resulted in several criminal and other related charges, including mischief causing danger to life, dangerous operation of an aircraft and operating an aircraft without a pilot’s licence.

But while Boria is yet to appear in court on the charges, with a date set for October, he is already planning his next foray into high-flying danger with his “Mission to Space on a Lawn Chair” next summer.

“It will be phenomenal,” he said. “I know I can do this. I’m very confident. And I still have a whole year to prepare.”

Boria said he has already purchased a 1970s Soviet space suit he plans to refurbish, and is working towards getting his pilot’s licence and a radio operator’s licence.

The attempt will cost him about $500,000, he estimates. But he’s already raised about half of that through his cleaning product business, All Clean Natural.

And while the idea sounds beyond far-fetched to the average person, Boria is convinced it’s completely doable if he wears the space suit and uses 500 “stratospheric weather balloons.”

Photo by Aryn Toombs / Calgary Herald

Once Boria reaches 43 kilometres above the earth, after more than two hours of floating, he plans to “let go” of the chair and parachute back to earth.

“Once I’m up there, I’ll jump down and break the speed of sound,” he said. “If the Red Bull guy can do it, I can too.”

Boria’s goal is to beat the world record of Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian skydiver who broke the sound barrier in 2012.

As part of the Red Bull Stratos space diving project, he rose 39 kilometres into the stratosphere in a helium balloon before free falling in a pressure suit and then parachuting to earth.

Baumgartner is a highly trained skydiver and BASE jumper.