Landing next challenge for balloonist's crew

CNN's Jeff Flock

Editor's Note: CNN Access is a regular feature on CNN.com providing interviews with newsmakers from around the world.

ST. LOUIS, Missouri (CNN) -- American adventurer Steve Fossett is facing perhaps his greatest challenge yet. He made history Tuesday by becoming the first person to journey around the globe alone in balloon, but he has yet to land.

Strong high-speed winds have delayed the landing for the huge, 140-foot-tall balloon called Spirit of America, but Fossett and his team are aiming for a safe touchdown around dawn Thursday local time in Australia.

CNN Correspondent Jeff Flock -- who is covering Fossett's odyssey from the mission control center at Washington University in St. Louis -- talked Wednesday with Kevin Stass, the mission's air traffic control coordinator.

MORE STORIES Winds keep balloonist aloft    AUDIO CNN's Hugh Williams reports on balloonist Steve Fossett's latest effort to touch down 1.18MB / 1min 52 secs WAV sound   EXTRA INFORMATION • Map: Fossett's flight path  • Fossett' s "Spirit of Freedom"    RESOURCES Previous aviation records    Balloonist's background Steve Fossett holds world records in ballooning, sailing and flying airplanes. He also swam the English Channel in 1985, placed 47th in the Iditarod dog sled race in 1992 and participated in the 24 Hours of Le Mans car race in 1996. -- Source: The Associated Press

FLOCK: Steve Fossett is finally over land after hours of efforts to steer his balloon away from the ocean. The crew here at mission control says they've now got a lot of Australia to play with in their efforts to help guide the craft to a safe touchdown.

In fact, Fossett does not officially have the world record until he gets his balloon capsule on the ground. If there is a catastrophic problem or something, and he has to bail out, then his latest quest to make history is all over.

I'm here with Kevin Stass. Kevin, your first goal is to get him on the ground. Where does that stand?

STASS: We're trying to get him on the ground at the moment. He is flying along at about 6,000 feet.

FLOCK: I could see him, if I'm in Australia.

STASS: Oh, yes. Yes, you can see him, no problem at all, except it's dark, of course. But, yes, we are trying to get him on the ground, hopefully around about dawn [local time].

FLOCK: Now, how dangerous is this to put him down? Why didn't you do it [Tuesday]? We expected he'd be on the ground now. Why didn't you do it?

STASS: Well, as he crossed the coast -- he crossed the coast at Ceduna -- and the weather forecast was pretty bad. So we decided to send him on an extra night.

FLOCK: How was he with that?

STASS: Well, I think we were pulling straws as to who was going to ring him up and tell him you've got to spend an extra night in the capsule. But he took it pretty well actually. So he's now going into -- well, he's in nighttime at the moment, so we are hoping to put him down at dawn.

Air traffic control coordinator Kevin Stass

FLOCK: There is always more than a little bit of drama where Steve Fossett is concerned. Do you see any drama here? What's the impact? You put him down, and the winds are strong -- what potentially goes wrong?

STASS: Well, he can get dragged across the Australian bush, so we don't really want to do that. And it can have a hard impact on the ground, shake everything around; you know, he could get injured. I mean all sorts of problems. So that's why we decided to put him down at dawn.

FLOCK: How is everybody holding up here? Obviously you're getting more time here at mission control than you had intended. How is everybody doing?

STASS: They're doing all right. I mean ... I haven't had that much sleep over the past 24 to 36 hours, but we are all in pretty good shape. We're buoyed up by the fact that, you know, he has actually done it, and the last bit of the mission is just around the corner.