Red Bull Stratos

Nforce

The much anticipated world record attempt for the highest ever parachute jump is set for this Tuesday. 9th October.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

Nforce

Less than 35 minutes to go...

http://www.youtube.com/redbull

Among the record attempts are: highest parachute jump @ 120,000ft and to break the sound barrier in freefall.

Capsule ..

Fully Established

Looks like the balloon will be launching at 1800 GMT , after a weather delay.

Henry Ford III

http://www.youtube.com/user/redbull/featured?v=vkJ5ItzEq3M

Looks airborne already.

Fully Established

According to the redbull site the pilot is only being suited up now their still going with 1800 for the launch . http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

Sterling Archer

45,000 people watching now... nice weather they have

Launch now set to 18:15 - 11:15 local

Lustrum

I just read about this in the paper today, I love how he did PRACTICE jumps from 15 and 18 miles :eek:

You have to admire his testicular fortitude

Sterling Archer

Aborted now

Fully Established

The trip for today has been cancelled because of gusty winds.

Nforce

Mission aborted due to high winds.

stopthepanic

looks like it tomorrow, here's the count down

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

Nforce

Less than an hour and a half to go.

Also, 65 years ago this very day, Charles "Chuck" Yeager was officially the first man to break the sound barrier.

Tenger

Watching it now.......good luck to that man

nocoverart

This is very exciting stuff! a good watch for a sleepy Sunday evening

hawkwind23

cant get the live feed

Lustrum

Just home from work in time to see this.

Fingers crossed it all goes well and he gets back on the ground safely

Peregrine

hawkwind23 wrote: »

cant get the live feed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrIxH6DToXQ

Ash.J.Williams

Watching all evening, i'm speechless

hawkwind23

on bbc news now

jdee99

Been watching this since he lifted off - fingers crossed

jdee99

Peregrine

jdee99 wrote: »

He actaully jumped :eek:

jdee99

Brillant!

Lustrum

That's incredible!

Even I was cheering as he touched down

hawkwind23

thought he was tatty bread when spinning out of control at over 700mph!!!
how did he stop spinning?

Su Campu

Here's the sounding for Santa Teresa, New Mexico, which is the closest ascent to Roswell. The temperature outside the capsule was around -7 °C when he jumped at 128,000 ft (38 km), 3 hPa. He would have then fallen through increasingly colder air on the way down, reaching a minimum of -72 °C at 17.3 km. This is probably when his visor fogged up. Temperatures started to rise again, and he hit the 0 °C mark at around 4.2 km amsl (around 700 m above the 3,500 m terrain height there).

Tenger

hawkwind23 wrote: »

thought he was tatty bread when spinning out of control at over 700mph!!!
how did he stop spinning?

Once he encountered the stratosphere he was slowed by the thicker air, this then allowed him to use drag to control his fall. He didn't try to stop the spin for the initial 30-60 secs, that would only slow him.


Am I right in saying it looked like 729 mph was the fastest point?

hawkwind23

crazy!
knowing your gonna start spinning at 700MPH and just accepting it , thats insane!
would there be g-forces in the spins? surely likely to lose consciousness.
no wonder everyone looked worried !

jamo2oo9

Actually he was wearing a pressurised suit so he wouldn't feel huge stress on G-force.

Great watch, was watching it from lift-off and it was truly astonishing to watch

b757

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/121014-felix-baumgartner-skydive-sound-barrier-kittinger-roswell-science-2/

MACH 1.24 reached.

"Baumgartner reached unprecedented speeds of 833.9 miles (1,342 kilometers) an hour while free-falling in a pressurized suit."

Amazing what he done, started watched it about a half hour before the jump.
Was cool to see him go through the ascent, checklists and finally the jump, some view he had.

Wonder what his next crazy idea is?

pclancy

Yep confirmed that he has actually broken the sound barrier. Nice effort! The visor fogging up must have been terrifying, did they plan for that?

Accidental IFR? Imagine what that felt like at such a speed

numbnutz

Amazing moment in history to watch.I had my six year daughter on my lap watching it with me she was amazed by it.
Nice touch for Joe Kittenger to be mentoring Felix and to be the voice in his ear just before he jumped.
Apparantly his last jump before he settles down with the girlfriend,but what a jump to be your last!!

Su Campu

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

Actually he was wearing a pressurised suit so he wouldn't feel huge stress on G-force.

Great watch, was watching it from lift-off and it was truly astonishing to watch

A pressurised suit was not going to protect him from G forces that were possible. There was even a safety chute built in that would deploy automatically if they got too much.

Tenger

jamo2oo9 wrote: »

Actually he was wearing a pressurised suit so he wouldn't feel huge stress on G-force.

In a way the suit would be acting as a tiny 1 man spacecraft/capsule.

While I understand that they were trying to study the practicalities of egressing spacecraft in distress I can't see the materials technology being able to replicate such suit in smaller versions for a few years yet.

hawkwind23

either way ,
tumbling out of control at 800MPH + whilst breaking the sound barrier is quite a feat for a human.
although i still think its insane , he is lucky to be alive today.
i dont think you can predict outcomes when your spinning as he was , the camera cut away and everyone was thinking hes a goner!
amazing he was able to bring that under control and land so serenely
awesome

AwayWithFaries

Disappointed I missed it last night, watched it this morning alright. Amazing stuff. Fair play to the man, must have been scary enough when he was spinning out of control.

Nforce

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFU774q6eVM