STOCKBRIDGE balloonist Colin Prescot is planning to mark his place in aviation history by ascending into space in a balloon.

Colin, together with team-mate Andy Elson, will be suspended beneath a balloon seven times the height of Nelson's Column as they attempt to fly to the edge of space and break the 40-year-old world altitude record.

The pair, nicknamed the Odd Couple, first hit the headlines back in 1999 when they failed to achieve the first circumnavigation of the globe in a hot-air balloon after being denied permission to fly over Chinese airspace.

This time, they will climb to 132,000 feet - three and a half times the cruising altitude of commercial airliners - where the curvature of the earth will be dramatically revealed and the pilots will be floating in a virtually atmosphere-free environment.

Colin said: "This is the ultimate professional challenge. It is the one thing I have always aspired to, above everything else.

"There are risks, of course, but our job as professionals is to make sure that we plan it in such a way that every eventuality is covered.

"We don't plan on killing ourselves."

To combat the extreme conditions and lack of atmosphere, they will make the ascent wearing Russian- made astronaut style spacesuits sitting on an open flight deck.

The mission, which will be beamed back to earth live, is planned for a launch between July and September next year.

The current balloon altitude record of 113,740 feet was set in 1961 as part of the US space programme.

The project is backed by leading science and technology business QinetiQ, formerly part of the Ministry of Defence research department Dera.

The balloon will be known as QinetiQ1.

The balloon, made from polyethylene, will have a volume of 40 million cubic feet and will take between three and five hours to ascend to low space.

The launch site will be in the south west and the balloon will be visible up to 600 miles away with the naked eye, providing a free spectacle for millions of people.

Colin said: "We are doing this for the excitement of making the first British manned mission into space.

"It's an unashamed adventure, and that's what we are: adventurers."