Skydiver breaks record jumping from space

[tony hipchest]

New Mexico is kinda boring but there is some pretty cool shit to do here. In retrospect i shoulda made the 2 hour drive to go watch this (being that i drove around for 3 hours yesterday in alien/military missle range/ranch country, looking for a mythical fishing hole.

the video of him jumping is a rush. i wish i could try it.-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19943590

Baumgartner's leap Watch
A man on ledge, 23 miles up

Austrian Felix Baumgartner has become the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 833.9mph (1,342km/h).
In jumping out of a balloon 128,100ft (24 miles; 39km) above New Mexico, the 43-year-old also smashed the record for the highest ever freefall.

He said he almost aborted the dive because his helmet visor fogged up.

It took just under 10 minutes for him to descend. Only the last few thousand feet were negotiated by parachute.

Once down, he fell to his knees and raised his fists in triumph. Helicopter recovery teams were on hand moments later.

"Let me tell you - when I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble. You don't think about breaking records anymore, you don't think about gaining scientific data - the only thing that you want is to come back alive," he said afterwards at a media conference.

None of the new marks set by Baumgartner can be classed as "official" until endorsed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI).

Its representative was the first to greet the skydiver on the ground. GPS data recorded on to a microcard in the Austrian's chest pack will form the basis for the height and speed claims that are made.


The jump in numbers
Exit altitude: 128,100ft; 39,045m
Freefall time: 4'20"
Freefall distance 119,846ft; 36,529m
Max velocity: 833.9mph; 1,342.8km/h; Mach 1.24

These will be submitted formally through the Aerosport Club of Austria for certification.

There was concern early in the dive that Baumgartner was in trouble. He was supposed to get himself into a delta position - head down, arms swept back - as soon as possible after leaving his capsule. But the video showed him tumbling over and over.

Eventually, however, he was able to use his great experience, from more than 2,500 career dives, to correct his fall and get into a stable configuration.

Even before this drama, it was thought the mission might have to be called off. As he went through last-minute checks inside the capsule, it was found that a heater for his visor was not working. This meant the visor fogged up as he exhaled.

Anxious viewing: Eva Baumgartner watches her son climb into the sky
"This is very serious, Joe," he told retired US Air Force Col Joe Kittinger, whose records he was attempting to break, and who was acting as his radio link in mission control at Roswell airport.

The team took a calculated risk to proceed after understanding why the problem existed.

Baumgartner's efforts have finally toppled records that have stood for more than 50 years

see link for vid, awesome pics of his suit and capsule, plus the rest of the story.

[Bayz101]

Watched it live. Absolutely incredible.

[tony hipchest]

ive only broken muffdiving records.

6 hours submerged w/o an oxygen mask or even a snorkel.

[Killer]

JUMP!!!

[tony hipchest]

^^^^a picture thats worth a million+ words ^^^^

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ell-science-2/

"I'm coming home," Felix Baumgartner radioed Sunday just before stepping off his 24-mile-high (39-kilometer-high) balloon capsule and into the history books.



He wasted no time getting there: In the process of logging the highest ever jump, Baumgartner reached unprecedented speeds of 833.9 miles (1,342 kilometers) an hour while free-falling in a pressurized suit.

Though he appeared no worse for the wear during a post-jump press conference, Baumgartner had, officials announced, broken the sound barrier during the free fall, reaching Mach 1.24. Asked what it was like to go supersonic, he said, "It's hard to describe, because I didn't feel it ... In that pressure suit, you don't feel anything."

After several postponements, the so-called Red Bull Stratos Mission to the Edge of Space had begun shortly after 2 p.m. ET, when he opened his capsule high above Roswell (map), New Mexico.

"Be sure to duck your head real low as you go out the door," warned retired U.S. Air Force pilot Joseph Kittinger, who set the previous height record in 1960—19.5 miles (31.3 kilometers)—and was the only Red Bull Stratos team member with a direct radio link to Baumgartner. (See classic pictures of Kittinger's skydive.)

Soon after, Baumgartner dived from beneath history's largest helium balloon—55 stories tall and as wide as a football field.

After a 4-minute, 22-second free fall—not the longest duration on record, as he'd hoped (that record-breaking speed may have had something to do with it)—the Austrian sky diver opened his parachute at about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters).

"Couldn't have done it any better myself," Kittinger said over the radio, and to the millions who watched the live Internet feed of Baumgartner's skydive.



Baumgartner faced mortal dangers at every turn: Should his pressurized suit have torn, for starters, the lack of atmospheric pressure at extreme altitudes could have caused his blood to boil. (See "Supersonic Skydive's Five Biggest Risks: Boiling Blood, Deadly Spins, and Worse.")

And if his body had gone into a so-called flat spin—rotating perhaps hundreds of times a minute—he could have suffered extreme eye and brain injury.

If he in fact did achieve supersonic speeds, Baumgartner confronted dangers wholly unknown to science.

"We try to anticipate as much as we can about supersonic speed," Red Bull Stratos Medical Director Jon Clark said last week. "But we really don't know, because nobody has done this before."

Despite the dangers, Baumgartner remained optimistic before the skydive.

In an interview with Red Bull, he commented: "I have the best team behind me. For me, I have been preparing ever since I started BASE jumping. I have been working towards this goal since I was a little kid when I started looking up to people like Joe Kittinger. And with him on my team, I know I am surrounded by the best in the field."

Fittingly, Baumgartner accomplished his feat on the 65th anniversary of Chuck Yeager's record-breaking supersonic flight—a milestone not lost on the Austrian pilot.



"In 65 years it goes to show there are still challenges to overcome, and you should never lose sight of trying to achieve them," he said. "I would be proud to be a part of that group of explorers."

so how did felix celebrate his record jump? by going to starbucks in roswell for an espresso. im sure an endorsement deal is to follow (if there wanst one already).

[Atlanta Dan]

Originally Posted by Bayz101

Watched it live. Absolutely incredible.

Watched it as well.

I was afraid they were going to have to kick in the 20 second delay and cut the video when he went into the flat spin

Amazing

[Atlanta Dan]

According to MSNBC he also apparently invented the warp drive during his jump

[Lady Steel]

This is all kinds of awesomeness!