Anyone else watching the human cannonball break the sound barrier?

[WILCO]

Blows my mind that his balloon is 55 stories high.

Here's a link: http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/10/red-bull-skydive-delay/

[L1A1Rocker]

I seem to recall watching this in the last star trek movie.

[starmac]

I have some questions about his stunt.
I can see wanting to set a record, but he Claims that if he survives, this will be his last jump. My question is won't it be his last jump if he doesn't survive?????

Why would an Aussie pick roswell NM to make this jump, instead of somewhere in his own country. Something about aliens and roswell I guess.

[nicholst55]

I have some questions about his stunt.
I can see wanting to set a record, but he Claims that if he survives, this will be his last jump. My question is won't it be his last jump if he doesn't survive?????

Why would an Aussie pick roswell NM to make this jump, instead of somewhere in his own country. Something about aliens and roswell I guess.

I thought he was an Austrian. Maybe he thinks aliens will abduct him if he jumps at Roswell.

[starmac]

Maybe he is austrian, I heard it on the radio and might have misunderstood.

[dragonrider]

JMHO but I think it is a foolish endeavor. One has only one life, to risk it in such a manner is insane. And for what?? Fame??? Big deal you get your name in the record books, or the obituaries.

[theperfessor]

Isn't this part of the test to develop an escape mechanism for astronauts?

[375RUGER]

It makes since now that there was not enough helium for the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta this week, it's in Roswell.

I know that they have been predicting we would run out of helium someday.

[popper]

Closed down the helium reserve near Amarillo a few years back. He would like it to be a fed funded escape project. His goal is supersonic flight, not high altitude bail-out. He'd better go fast as a normal O2 bottle will only last 5 mi. It's a real trick to get off the ground in a balloon that will get to 20 mi. Me thinks he has a death wish.

[375RUGER]

I bet he doesn't have a "normal" O2 bottle. Back when I had to maintain an SCBA cert, the bottles were 30 minute bottles-sitting at rest, 15-20 minutes if you were doing some physical activity.

[Artful]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-space-skydivebre8991f9-20121010,0,2250009.story

Skydiver's jump from stratosphere delayed until Sunday

Irene Klotz
Reuters
1:28 p.m. CDT, October 10, 2012


(Reuters) - An Austrian adventurer will have to wait at least until Sunday to skydive from a balloon flying 23 miles above New Mexico in an attempt to break a long-standing freefall record and the sound barrier.

Felix Baumgartner, 43, had hoped to make the jump on Thursday following two delays this week because of high winds in Roswell, New Mexico. But the weather will keep Baumgartner, a licensed helicopter pilot, hot-air balloonist and professional skydiver, grounded until at least Sunday.

"Sunday is looking like an option," team spokeswoman Sarah Anderson wrote in an email.

Baumgartner will ride to an altitude of 120,000 feet in a capsule dangling from a 55-story helium balloon that is beyond paper-thin. The 30-million-cubic-foot (850,000-cubic-meter) plastic balloon is about one-tenth the thickness of a Ziploc bag.

To successfully and safely launch the balloon, winds need to be no more than 2 miles per hour (3.3 km per hour) at an altitude of 700 feet, which is the height of the inflated balloon.

The current record for a high-altitude skydive was set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who jumped from a balloon flying at 102,800 feet. Kittinger, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, fell for four minutes and 36 seconds and reached a maximum speed of 614 mph before opening his parachute.

Baumgartner hopes to top that by exceeding 690 mph -- the speed of sound at the targeted altitude -- and freefalling for 5 minutes and 35 seconds.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Doina Chiacu)

[stubshaft]

Interested in watching his jump but weather conditions are causing him to cancel.

[starmac]

Sounds like we will be waiting a long time.
I don't know if the wind has ever been less than two miles an hour (especially 700 ft up) anywhere in NM.

[stubshaft]

Sounds like we will be waiting a long time.
I don't know if the wind has ever been less than two miles an hour (especially 700 ft up) anywhere in NM.

It was strong enough to cause the UFO to crash![smilie=2:

[OneSkinnyMass]

$60-70K in helium wasted and the balloons are not reusable lol Red Bull backs some crazy things tho.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_21749220/red-bull-stratos-supersonic-skydive-attempt-may-happen

Skinny

[10x]

$60-70K in helium wasted and the balloons are not reusable lol Red Bull backs some crazy things tho.

http://www.mercurynews.com/science/ci_21749220/red-bull-stratos-supersonic-skydive-attempt-may-happen

Skinny

The optics will not be good if the guy dies.
Drink red bull and fly.
Drink red bull, jump from a balloon and die?
Methinks it was very dumb on the part of Red Bull to get involved.

[Freightman]

Sounds like we will be waiting a long time.
I don't know if the wind has ever been less than two miles an hour (especially 700 ft up) anywhere in NM.
Like I have seen the wind at 2mph more than twice in 73 years, wait five minutes and it will be 70 mph.

[leftiye]

Can anyone tell me whether or not a person with air supply, and necessary clothing (cold ya know) or a capsule couldn't simply bail out from orbit (so long as they know which way is down that is)? Maybe several chutes? Sounds like a simple unmanned test could be easily done.

[leftiye]

P.S. I don't mean freefall (hot ya know). Why wouldn't a parachute slow one to liveable velocity as re entry progresses? Sure 18000 mph give or take, but no air/very little air initially. Maybe some special tactic/technique? Think an hour at 6 Gs!

[Artful]

http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/launch-progress/

On hold for wind conditions again. 8 am MDT next window they think

[WILCO]

31 minutes to launch........

[WILCO]

http://www.redbullstratos.com/the-mission/launch-progress/

Thanks for the link Art! [smilie=s:

[Geraldo]

I have some questions about his stunt.
I can see wanting to set a record, but he Claims that if he survives, this will be his last jump. My question is won't it be his last jump if he doesn't survive?????

:grin: I guess either way it will be his last jump.

[timbuck]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121008-felix-baumgartner-skydive-how-to-watch-live-video/

live feed

120 minutes to float, altitude for jump.

[Artful]

36K HIGH - hit the jet stream - now going over 85 mph ground speed

[Artful]

40K - 116 mph - and minus 67 deg f

[DukeInFlorida]

I thought that objects falling through the air have a natural wind resistance that prevents them from going any faster that whatever that speed is. Like a penny dropped off the Empire State Building doesn;t bury itself into the sidewalk like common lore suggests.

This guy with his space suit might not achieve his sound barrier speed.

If he tries to slow himself down at 600 mph with his arms, skydiver style, his arms will rip right off.

[bob208]

a lot of hype. although he will break a record that stood since 1960. a man named kittinger went to 101,516 feet and jumped he had temps of up to -94 deg. and hit a speed of 614 mph.

[Artful]

Bob208 the old guy at mission control talking directly to Felix is Joe Kittinger the previous record holder.

Now has reached height of old record 102,800 and still climbing - interestly it's warming up outside of the capsule.

[Artful]

Looks like float at 122K - nope they vented and it's climbing again 126K+

[alrighty]

126, 000 feet and climbing.

[Artful]

free fall max speed 729 mph

[alrighty]

looked like he was tumbling at the start , does he have time to make the speed up?

[Artful]

Nope he's free falling to max speed in less than first min - didn't make it to 768 mph speed of sound

[alrighty]

Well at least he can try it again , safely down.

[WILCO]

Heck of a ride!

[Geraldo]

The speed of sound isn't constant, so he might have made it. Glad he walked away from the jump no matter what records he set or failed to set.

[fatnhappy]

Does anyone besides me watch NASCAR for the crashes?

[Artful]

Does anyone besides me watch NASCAR for the crashes?

NASCAR has 75 million fans so odds are you are not alone. :holysheep

[alrighty]

Does anyone besides me watch NASCAR for the crashes?

In a word , yes.

[Bad Water Bill]

What did it cost REDBULL for the whole project.

Probably could have got all of us together for one BIG casting and shooting WEEK.[smilie=p:[smilie=p:

[starmac]

I could care less what red bull does. lol
I tried less than half of a can several years ago, and could still taste it the next day, which would have been allright if it had tasted good. lol

[Char-Gar]

I have no interest in helping an idiot to become rich and famous by watching him do a stupid stunt.

[waksupi]

Found;
One large balloon. If this is yours, please call and identify. Must be removed immediately, it is covering my outhouse.
Call Normandy 44410

[SciFiJim]

Can anyone tell me whether or not a person with air supply, and necessary clothing (cold ya know) or a capsule couldn't simply bail out from orbit (so long as they know which way is down that is)? Maybe several chutes? Sounds like a simple unmanned test could be easily done.

The trick would be slowing down from orbital speeds. At 150 miles altitude the orbital speed is about 17,000 MPH. Maybe a series of ablative shells and drogue chutes would work. Something like that was proposed in Stormship Troopers. It might be possible when materials science gets better, but I sure wouldn't want to be the first to try it out.

[Bill*]

I thought that objects falling through the air have a natural wind resistance that prevents them from going any faster that whatever that speed is. Like a penny dropped off the Empire State Building doesn;t bury itself into the sidewalk like common lore suggests.

This guy with his space suit might not achieve his sound barrier speed.

If he tries to slow himself down at 600 mph with his arms, skydiver style, his arms will rip right off.

Correct, but at the altitude he's jumping from there is basically no air

[Artful]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-space-jump-20121015,0,351680.story


Daredevil jumps into record books from 24 miles above Earth

Felix Baumgartner is the first free-falling human to break the sound barrier, leaping from the stratosphere above New Mexico from a balloon-lifted capsule.

By W.J. Hennigan, Los Angeles Times
October 14, 2012, 8:01 p.m.
With a short salute and a small step forward, Felix Baumgartner leapt from a capsule perched more than 24 miles above a barren New Mexico desert and landed safely, setting a world record for the highest sky dive.

"Sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are," Baumgartner said before stepping off a small ledge on the outside of a capsule lifted into the stratosphere by a helium-filled balloon. "I'm going home now."

Baumgartner, 43, hit speeds of nearly 834 mph, becoming the first free-falling human to crack the sound barrier. He also set a record for the highest altitude manned balloon flight at 128,097 feet above the Earth — about a mile higher than expected.

The event also scored a record for social media.

The mission had more than two-dozen cameras, including a helmet cam, to catch the action on the way up and the jump itself. It was webcast live on the event website and on YouTube. More than 8 million computers and other digital devices were tuned in to the live stream on YouTube alone, making the jump the most-watched live event ever on the site.

There were a couple of dicey moments.

While Baumgartner was ascending, he told mission control about a "serious" issue with the heat in his visor faceplate. He couldn't feel warmth on his face, and the visor was fogging up. But officials gave Baumgartner the go-ahead for the jump.

He popped open the capsule door and sunlight streamed in. It was a sight that Baumgartner had not seen in the 21/2 half hours he spent alone climbing toward aerospace history.

Not long after he stepped into the stratosphere, Baumgartner began wildly spinning as he descended at high speeds. Officials had feared a so-called "flat spin" — a horizontal spin that can lead to a loss of consciousness.

The spinning was apparent even in a live video shot taken by a long-range camera. But Baumgartner righted himself.

"We were glad he was able to get it under control," said Art Thompson, technical project director for the mission. "He went into a tumble."

Before the feat, there had been concerns about how a human body might respond to supersonic speeds without benefit of aircraft. But at a post-event news conference, Baumgartner said he didn't know when he sped through the sound barrier. "I didn't feel it at all," he said.

After free falling 119,846 feet, Baumgartner pulled the rip cord and sent his red and white parachute streaming into the sky. Slowly, he floated to the ground about 35 miles east of where the balloon first launched. In all, the decent lasted 9 minutes, 3 seconds.

Upon landing, he fell to his knees and raised his fists before being enveloped by personnel involved in the mission.

Congratulations came in via Twitter from a wide range of onlookers, including the Air Force, NASA and other aerospace entities.

The jump was an endeavor, five years in the making, to break a free-fall world record of 102,800 feet, or 19 miles, set by Air Force test pilot Joe Kittinger in 1960. Kittinger, now 84, was part of the new mission and relayed messages between the control room and Baumgartner.

"A better champion cannot be found than Felix Baumgartner," Kittinger said at the news conference.

There was one record Baumgartner didn't break. His free fall was 4 minutes, 19 seconds, but Kittinger's lasted 4 minutes, 36 seconds.

Baumgartner's supersonic jump came 65 years to the day after test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier when he flew the Bell X-1 above Edwards Air Force Base on Oct. 14, 1947.

The jump, twice delayed last week by wind gusts, was designed to test the threshold of his equipment and to explore the limits and capabilities of a human body bailing out from an aircraft at extremely high altitudes above the Earth.

It was funded by energy drink company Red Bull, which paid millions of dollars to Southern California aerospace companies to pull off the stunt, but wouldn't say how much. The event was named Red Bull Stratos.

Most of the equipment involved was built by Sage Cheshire Inc., a small aerospace firm in Lancaster.

The pressurized capsule, weighing 2,900 pounds — a little more than a Volkswagen Beetle — was carried by the largest balloon ever used in a manned flight to altitude — 55 stories tall. Temperatures outside the capsule fell lower than minus 80 degrees.

Baumgartner, an Austrian national who lives in Switzerland, is an accomplished jumper who has parachuted from a variety of structures, including the Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro and one of the world's tallest buildings, Taipei 101 Tower in Taipei, Taiwan. He said the Stratos mission was taxing.

"There's a reason that nobody was able to break Joe Kittinger's record for 52 years," Baumgartner said. "It's a difficult task."

[WILCO]

Amazing stuff for sure. Thanks for posting the article Art.

[starmac]

What happens to the capsule, do they just let it fall where it may, or wil it be shot down over the desert.

[SciFiJim]

What happens to the capsule, do they just let it fall where it may, or wil it be shot down over the desert.

A parachute was attached inline between the capsule and the balloon. It was supposed to be parachuted from the balloon several minutes after the jump. This was also a safety in case the jump could not be attempted. There was a crush pad on the bottom of the capsule to help soften the impact.

[starmac]

LOL what guides the capsules parachute.

[SciFiJim]

LOL what guides the capsules parachute.

Gravity?

[Blacksmith]

Project "Excelsior" was the forerunner.

"The Highest step in the World"
http://stratocat.com.ar/artics/excelsior-e.htm

The early balloon flights were for a series of projects leading to space flight.
http://history.nasa.gov/afspbio/part4-4.htm

The current balloonist had it easy compared to the first manned high altitude balloon flights.

Project Manhigh flights.

Flight 1
http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1957/FMN-19570602.htm

Flight 2
http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1957/CBY-19570819.htm

Flight 3
http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1958/HMN-19581008.htm

Lots of links in these articles for further reading.

[Boz330]

There was another attempt on the record in 65' by Nick Piantanida. He actually made 3 flights. On the first the balloon ruptured at 27,000ft. On the second attempt the oxygen quick connect froze up and he couldn't disconnect to exit the capsule. This was at 120,000ft and they released the capsule and it parachuted back to earth. Unfortunately the third time wasn't good. There was a malfunction of the oxygen system at 57,000ft and he was rendered unconscious and spent 3 months or so in a coma before they pulled the plug on him.
Cheryl Sterns an airline pilot and ex member of the Army Parachute Team, Golden Knights, was trying for several years to put an attempt together. She never managed to raise the necessary money for the attempt though.
Red Bull sponsors a lot of Aviation related events in Skydiving and of course the Red Bull air race series which is pretty exciting to watch.
Regardless of what you think of the sanity of these endeavors, at least it is being done with private funds, not tax dollars. It is their money and more power to them for doing this. It was once thought that it took the government to fund these sorts of experiments because of the cost. Now we have private enterprise funding space flight and a jump from the edge of space. The last attempt 52 years ago was funded by the Air Force.
I have been jumping out of airplanes for 48 years and I'm hear to tell you it takes a pair of brass ones to do this, as it did for Kittenger.:shock: In fact Joe's record was even more impressive because he wasn't a skydiver and back then they had very little experience with freefall techniques since skydiving was only 2 years old at the time.

Bob

[Silvercreek Farmer]

I didn't get to watch it live, but just reading the recap gets me excited. The space race was before my time and I hate that I missed it, but I sure hope I live long enough to see affordable commercial space travel.

[Mud Eagle]

I have no interest in helping an idiot to become rich and famous by watching him do a stupid stunt.

How is he an 'idiot' or the event a 'stupid stunt'?

This wasn't someone filming a '*******'-like stunt for YouTube. This was a highly planned event (over 5 years of planning) that required precisely engineered equipment to accomplish. It also required a HUGE private financial investment.

Baby steps like this are what helps the human species figure out how to travel off Earth and into the cosmos. People and events like this are how we figure out how to do these things with out all the industrial might and financing of the free world (ergo, NASA manned spaceflight program). NASA last night commented that the privately-funded space suit included a number of new innovations, as did the balloon capsile that took him up there.

I think it's just about as far from 'idiot' and 'stupid' as one can get.

[sw282]

l agree Mud Eagle---They called the Wright Brothers idiots and Kitty Hawk a stunt too

[WILCO]

I think what makes it appear to most folks that those involved are idiots and it's all just a stunt is the lack of government involvement in the form of the military/NASA and defensive purposes. I'll admit that when I first read of this, I thought it was dumb too, now I see the scientific value of it. It's just sad and sickening that America isn't taking the lead on the issue.