News Felix Baumgartner, 23 miles balloon jump.

[Kyle]

 

[Urwumpe]

Space program? Baumgartner had not even left the stratosphere. He was not even half as high as the limit to space in the USA, which is lower than in the rest of the world (USA: End of mesosphere, 85 km, ROW&FAI: Karman line, 100 km)

Also if we would put as many cameras on the ISS for watching EVAs, I doubt as many would watch the second EVA as the first one... and after a month of ISS, nobody would really watch at all.

Baumgartner did something impressive, but it has not much in common with space. But it might have real applications for launch aborts, if the data of the drop is useful. Baumgartners medical advisor Jonathan Clark might have had his own agenda there, his wife was killed in the Columbia accident.

 

[Face]

There are a lot of Turkish people in the comments that, for some reason, keep claiming Felix is a fellow Turk, even though he was born in Salzburg, Austria.

And I bet there are quite some folks that think he is from down under. Austria and Australia sound so similar that we could put a kangaroo as our heraldic animal instead of the eagle. And nobody would notice (or even care)...

 

[BruceJohnJennerLawso]

Space program? Baumgartner had not even left the stratosphere. He was not even half as high as the limit to space in the USA, which is lower than in the rest of the world (USA: End of mesosphere, 85 km, ROW&FAI: Karman line, 100 km)

Also if we would put as many cameras on the ISS for watching EVAs, I doubt as many would watch the second EVA as the first one... and after a month of ISS, nobody would really watch at all.

Baumgartner did something impressive, but it has not much in common with space. But it might have real applications for launch aborts, if the data of the drop is useful. Baumgartners medical advisor Jonathan Clark might have had his own agenda there, his wife was killed in the Columbia accident.

Not much use in the Columbia situation. Its nice to know that stationary drops from this altitude are survivable, but once you have more than 1-2 kps, the deaceleration friction is still going to roast you in any spacesuit.

 

[dbeachy1]

Post-jump press conference replay is up:

 

[asbjos]

It turns out that Felix did not only break the record for highest balloon flight, highest jump, first to break the speed of sound without a vehicle and longest free fall (phew), the event is now the most viewed event on YouTube live stream. Eight million people watched the event live on YouTube.

The source, for the Orbinauts who read Norwegian , is here.

 

[garyw]

O-F Staff Note: Thread closed pending review.

 

[dbeachy1]

O-F Staff Note: 25 off-topic posts moved to The Basement here and thread reopened. Feel free to continue the off-topic discussion there, but let's please stay on-topic in this thread. Thanks.

 

[Kyle]

Question, is that the theoretical limits a balloon of any size could go? If you got one that's bigger, could you go higher? Silly question, but I would love to see one day this stunt repeated. RedBull received a TON of advertising off this.

 

[statickid]

It turns out that Felix did not only break the record for highest balloon flight, highest jump, first to break the speed of sound without a vehicle and longest free fall (phew), the event is now the most viewed event on YouTube live stream. Eight million people watched the event live on YouTube.

The source, for the Orbinauts who read Norwegian , is here.

I watched the live feed and was under the impression he missed the longest freefall by 10 or 15 seconds. The onscreen reference they were showing said something like 4:32 and his fall timer said something like 4:15(didn't see exact time) when I saw the chute open. Was the clock not synchronized correctly?

 

[Urwumpe]

Funny phenomena about the significance: The TV station n-tv which usually had 1% of the viewers on a Sunday evening, was watched by 20% because of Baumgartner. More than the usually winning Tagesschau. It was watched by only 16% of the German TV audience

 

[SiberianTiger]

While the world watched Baumgartner's ultra-high-altitude jumping, one my good friend has made her 3rd parachute jump and has now got a category in parachuting! They did it practically at the same time.

 

[Ripley]

I watched the live feed and was under the impression he missed the longest freefall by 10 or 15 seconds. The onscreen reference they were showing said something like 4:32 and his fall timer said something like 4:15(didn't see exact time) when I saw the chute open. Was the clock not synchronized correctly?

I thought that he just decided not to break Kittinger's record in a (sort of) "form of respect" for the older colleague.

 

[Linguofreak]

Space program? Baumgartner had not even left the stratosphere. He was not even half as high as the limit to space in the USA, which is lower than in the rest of the world (USA: End of mesosphere, 85 km, ROW&FAI: Karman line, 100 km)

That's pretty much the joke:

One need not have a manned spaceflight program to have a better manned spaceflight program than the US these days.

 

[Ghostrider]

I thought that he just decided not to break Kittinger's record in a (sort of) "form of respect" for the older colleague.

That would make little sense. Records are meant to be broken, Kittinger knows that and I think he'd rather have Baumgartner do it rather that someone he doesn't know about and didn't work with. Baumgartner did the right thing and played it on the safe side, he's not an adrenalin junkie.

 

[Ripley]

That would make little sense. Records are meant to be broken...

Yes, I admit it was a bit too "romantic" if it was that way...

 

[Urwumpe]

Also Kittinger was sort of passing the flame to Baumgartner by being his CAPCOM during the flight and advising the team during the preparations. Kittinger couldn't have done it himself, but he did the best he can to see his own record broken. A bit like the old Master / Apprentice thing, with Baumgartner delivering his own master piece.

 

[Yoda]

I wonder if Felix deliberately pulled the cord a few seconds early so the longest freefall record would still be in his mentors name....makes you wonder!

 

[MattBaker]

I wonder if Felix deliberately pulled the cord a few seconds early so the longest freefall record would still be in his mentors name....makes you wonder!

In the press conference he said he didn't pull early.
He had to pull at that point because in case something goes wrong with the main chute he needs enough time to eventually cut the cords and open a secondary chute. You can't open your 2nd chute at 100 meter altitude, so he had to pull this "early".

Kittinger was slower, because he jumped with a drogue chute. If I'm driving 30 kilometers with my bike I also need more time than someone driving 40 kilometers with his car.

 

[Urwumpe]

In the press conference he said he didn't pull early.

He had pulled slightly early. Planned was 1500 meters (still pretty high for parachutists), but he pulled already at 3000 meters. Even if he would have waited until 1500 meters, he would have been too fast to get the record.