Jumping from 128,000 feet

[beelsebob]

I'm really surprised no one created a thread for this already.

This looked pretty amazing, the only disappointing thing is that he didn't say "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for... a man" as he jumped. Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,000 feet, accelerated to 706mph (provisionally), which breaks the speed of sound at that altitude, freefell for over 4 minutes, and landed successfully. Pretty awesome stuff.

[Steven]

More info at http://www.redbullstratos.com/

[strad]

Watched the whole thing and I think that was so oo awesome and so ballsy. =D> =D> =D>

[Morteza]

It is beyond words to explain what he did Simply stunning =D> Red Bull rules the skies as well

[hollus]

Amazing stuff indeed.

But to be honest it also has to be mentioned that he broke the speed of sound in a medium strongly resembling vacuum. It was 0.007PSI when he jumped. But I guess otherwise it would not be survivable with a simple suit?

P.S. I think he intentionally avoided breaking the longest freefall record, which is cool as there was enough glory in this jump already.

[beelsebob]

Amazing stuff indeed.

But to be honest it also has to be mentioned that he broke the speed of sound in a medium strongly resembling vacuum. It was 0.007PSI when he jumped. But I guess otherwise it would not be survivable with a simple suit?

P.S. I think he intentionally avoided breaking the longest freefall record, which is cool as there was enough glory in this jump already.

I actually don't, I suspect this is simply an artifact of him having jumped from higher than Kittenger. Baumgartner accelerated to a higher speed, and was doing near (or over) the speed of sound when he passed Kittenger's jump site. I would bet that the higher speed at that point, and subsequently lower down, would offset the fact that he jumped from a few seconds higher.

To put it in F1 terms – he did a RedBull – geared short, and still travelled down the straight faster because he out accelerated the other guy

[Tommy Cookers]

well said, people !
(sorry to say bb, your explanation defeats me, I'm having a slow day)

AFAIK he pulled the chute early because his visor was misted, so he couldn't read the instruments
(like Kittinger's, this freefall time can't be an official freefall record because they both had some stabilising drogue from the start)
if propelled only by self-weight, going supersonic shouldn't be damaging (likewise spinning)
(Mach 1 is 662 mph throughout these altitudes, my TV says he did 840 mph)
(to this day, 99% of supersonic flight in relatively thin air, to avoid various kinds of damage)

anyway, WELL DONE, Mr Baumgartner !!!!
makes F1 look petty in some ways

[Caito]

I saw it "Live", it was awesome.

Almost perfect, he forgot to close the door from the capsule before he jumped.

[stefan_]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1DhcQg0Os[/youtube]

It was amazing to watch it live. Breathtaking.

[strad]

because they both had some stabilising drogue from the start)

The drouge shute was not open at the start but rather after he started spinning.

[spacer]

Awesome jump, that guy has some titanium balls.

Yet somehow it feels kinda weird an energy drink company has managed to establish a "space program" more advanced than that of half the globes countries...

[matt21]

Amazing stuff indeed.

But to be honest it also has to be mentioned that he broke the speed of sound in a medium strongly resembling vacuum. It was 0.007PSI when he jumped. But I guess otherwise it would not be survivable with a simple suit?

P.S. I think he intentionally avoided breaking the longest freefall record, which is cool as there was enough glory in this jump already.

He flew with approx. 1300 km/h. That would be Mach 1.05 at 20°C and 1 bar.

[beelsebob]

because they both had some stabilising drogue from the start)

The drouge shute was not open at the start but rather after he started spinning.

The drouge was not open at all until very shortly before he pulled his main chute. He recovered the spin himself, not by sticking his arms out – he broke the sound barrier after the spin, exactly because he had not pulled the drouge to get him out of the spin.

[strad]

because they both had some stabilising drogue from the start)

The drouge shute was not open at the start but rather after he started spinning.

The drouge was not open at all until very shortly before he pulled his main chute. He recovered the spin himself, not by sticking his arms out – he broke the sound barrier after the spin, exactly because he had not pulled the drouge to get him out of the spin.

Yes you're right..I actually thought about correcting that but didn't bother. He was well under control, and said so, before he pulled the ole ripchord.