The countdown is on for skydiver

[Riverwind (imported)]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The countdown is on for skydiver Felix Baumgartner.

In just two weeks, Baumgartner will attempt to go supersonic when he jumps from a record altitude of 23 miles over New Mexico. Project managers announced Tuesday the feat will take place Oct. 8.

The Austrian parachutist jumped from 13 miles in March and 18 miles in July. This time, he hopes to break the all-time record of 19.5 miles set in 1960.

A giant helium balloon will hoist a pressurized capsule with Baumgartner inside, dressed in a pressure suit.

Baumgartner expects to reach a top speed of 690 mph and break the sound barrier with only his body, less than a half-minute after he hops from his capsule.

The same capsule was used for Baumgartner's two practice jumps but was damaged in the latest touchdown. It smashed down hard despite its parachute, and the outer shell had to be replaced with parts from a backup capsule. The entire craft was taken apart and reassembled.

The repairs and retesting pushed the final flight from August to October.

"I feel like a tiger in a cage waiting to get out," Baumgartner, 43, said in a statement.

Project officials note that excellent weather will be needed to launch the 30 million-cubic-foot helium balloon from Roswell. Early fall is generally an optimal time for such endeavors.

The entire flight will be monitored by a NASA-like Mission Control; the mission is known as Red Bull Stratos, short for stratosphere. One of the lead team members is record-holder Joe Kittinger, who was an Air Force captain when he took part in the military high-jump project.

This time, the effort is privately funded by the energy drink maker.

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Online:

Red Bull Stratos: http://www.redbullstratos.com/

stunt or science? fame or adrenalin rush?

River

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

Would he actually be breaking the sound barrier at that altitude (and pressure)?

That shock wave gets pretty rough, in the origonal WWII era work on breaking

the barrier only about 1/2 the pilots survived.

[Dave (imported)]

He can fall fast enough to break the sound barrier.

I suspect he will wear a flight suit with a hard helmet like an astronaut and air tanks, so that will lesson the effect of the shock wave.

It's the cold that can kill more than the speed.

[Riverwind (imported)]

They had a picture of him and he looked like an astronaut or at least had that type of suite on and sense NASA is involved I don't think its a stunt of sorts.

River

[A-1 (imported)]

Would he actually be breaking the sound barrier at that altitude (and pressure)?

That shock wave gets pretty rough, in the origonal WWII era work on breaking

the barrier only about 1/2 the pilots survived.

The less dense the air the lower the speed of the sound barrier. At STP (which is at sea level) the Sound barrier is around 750 - 780? mph... The tips of the propellers in many prop aircraft break the sound barrier at high RPMs routinely.

American P-38 lightning aircraft were rumored to be able to break the sound barrier in a power dive. It is almost certain that German pilots broke the sound barrier power diving in Messerschmidt 262 Swallows, the first operational swept-wing Jet fighter aircraft.

Every German V-2 Rocket that ever delivered an explosive warhead did...

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) —

The countdown is on for skydiver Felix Baumgartner.

In just two weeks,..........One of the lead team members is record-holder Joe Kittinger, who was an Air Force captain when he took part in the military high-jump project.

This time, the effort is privately funded by the energy drink maker.

___

Online:

Red Bull Stratos: http://www.redbullstratos.com/

stunt or science? fame or adrenalin rush?

River

In my humble opinion, it is a stunt, not science. As far as I can tell, this will not "discover" any new thing that we did not learn from Captain Kittinger's jump back in 1960. The fact that Red Bull is sponsoring it makes it pretty clear to me that this is just for publicity. Jumping from an altitude even higher than Kittinger did means that the world's record will pass to this new fellow, but the extra miles of altitude are not that great of a difference in pressure or environment, pretty much anything less than 50 miles is upper stratosphere, beyond that is space, albeit "near earth space" but pretty much the vacume of space.

IF this were testing some sort of escape/survival equipment for astronaughts (an emergency escape from the International Space Station for example) then I would call it science or at least exploration, but no, this is just a stunt, and not really a "death defying and dangerous" stunt, as long as the equipment used (pressure suit) performs as designed, it will be pretty safe. Hell, I really do believe that we could have made a jump from 30 miles back in 1960 if we had wanted to, it just would have required a much larger baloon to get to that altitude and there was nothing new to be learned by that, and it would have cost more dollars that NASA did not want to spend.

[Dave (imported)]

It's like climbing Mount Everest.

People do it because it is there.

[Dave (imported)]

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>>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49246105/ns ... e-science/

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Jump from 120,000 feet will push the human body's limits

Going into a flat spin is greatest risk — it could cause the brain and eyes to be squashed

By Mark Thompson

It's only by glancing out of the window when sitting in the comfort of an airline seat that you would know you are thousands of feet above the surface of the Earth.

Airlines these days cruise at around 35,000 feet, some higher and some lower, but without protection at these altitudes a human being cannot survive. It's a sobering thought that loss of cabin pressure at a typical cruising altitude of 35,000 feet would mean the pilots have just 30 to 60 seconds of useful consciousness to put on breathing apparatus or descend to below 10,000 feet to be able to operate the aircraft safely.

After that, judgement and ability is significantly and dangerously impaired. On Oct. 8, Felix Baumgartner will skydive from roughly 3.5 times this height at 120,000 feet where the conditions are hostile and the human body isn't designed to work. If unprotected, he will have less than 6 seconds before falling unconscious. Yet thanks to modern technology, the risks to the frail human body can be minimized.

NEWS: Thin Air, Big Mystery: Surviving High-Altitude Skydives

Before Baumgartner can make this historic jump from the edge of space he will ascend in a specially designed capsule suspended underneath a balloon 182 meters in diameter and filled with helium gas. Surprisingly, the most risky part of the flight is below 1,000 feet where, if the fabric of the balloon rips there isn't enough altitude and therefore time for Felix to escape, deploy parachute and land safely. Once he's over 4,000 feet he will be able to escape safely but then the risks become very different.

The capsule is pressurized to maintain the equivalent atmospheric pressure found at 16,000 feet to reduce the chances of decompression sickness during the ascent. Once at the jump altitude of 120,000 feet Baumgartner will open up the door of the capsule and immediately be reliant on his pressurized suit.

These suits, which are effectively a streamlined space suit, must be worn for any jump above the so-called Armstrong Line of 62,000 feet, although pilots generally wear them for operations above 50,000 feet for safety. Above the Armstrong Line the atmospheric pressure is so low that water boils at body temperature and, given that we are made up of 70 percent water, this is bad news. It's said that even the blood will "boil," but more accurately it's the production of the gas during this process that does the real damage.

It's not just the low atmospheric pressure he needs to worry about though since not only does he aim to smash the existing record of the highest sky dive currently held by Kittinger who jumped from 102,800 feet, he also aims to become the fastest in free fall plummeting to Earth at 1,100 kilometers per hour (685 miles per hour). In doing this, he hopes to become the first human being to break the sound barrier without the aid of an aircraft.

The actual value for the speed of sound varies according to air temperature and is lower when the air is cooler. Temperature in the atmosphere generally decreases with height (although due to the ozone layer it does increase again in regions of the stratosphere) so the speed of sound is lower the higher up you go.

ANALYSIS: 'Space-Divers' Plan to Break Sound Barrier With Their Bodies

This idea that Baumgartner is going to "break the sound barrier" is a little misleading. While he hopes to travel faster than sound, there isn't actually a barrier associated with it. The idea comes from historical experiences where aircraft suffered extreme turbulence, even destruction when approaching the speed of sound.

Instead of being caused by some ethereal barrier limiting supersonic travel it was actually the build-up of shockwaves as the speed of the craft approaches the speed of sound.

Probably the greatest danger facing Felix during his record-breaking jump at supersonic speeds is getting into a flat spin. As its name suggests, it's a flight situation where the body rotates horizontally about an axis generally located around the waist. Rotational speeds can reach up to 120 revolutions per minute and at the extremities of the body up to 22 times the force of gravity can be experienced.

When this happens, blood is forced to pool in the head and feet leading to unconsciousness. It happened to Joseph Kittinger when he jumped from 76,400 feet in 1959 and it was only the automatic deployment of his parachute which saved his life.

Baumgartner has a similar device that will deploy if 3.5g is detected for more than 6 seconds, the point at which he is likely to fall unconscious. This situation can be recovered but if a full spin develops the pressure of blood in the head can cause the brain and eyes to be squashed.

When Baumgartner makes his jump on Oct. 8 he will be well prepared against lack of oxygen, extremely low temperature, low atmospheric pressures and the risk of flat spins. But there are countless other risks that are as yet undiscovered and the human body does have its limits.

It takes someone like Baumgartner to leap into the unknown in such a hazardous environment to not only break records but to further science, as he says on his website, "Everyone has limits, not everyone accepts them."

© 2012 Discovery Channel

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[Arab Nights (imported)]

I found this clip of him at an earlier point in his career skydiving with buddies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qThHT-QC ... lts%3Fsear ch_query%3Dgermany%2Bnaked%2Bsky%2Bdiver%26oq%3Dge rmany%2Bnaked%2Bsky%2Bdiver%26gs_l%3Dyoutube.3...3 35.4186.0.5284.19.19.0.0.0.0.1171.3366.4j7j4j7-1.16.0...0.0...1ac.1.rZnIoYYWNMA

[DeaconBlues (imported)]

WELL "WHOOP-TE-DO!" LOOK AT WHAT SOME OTHER RICH OLD DUDE DID! <- (That is my way of sarcastically saying "big f***ing deal! I could not care less!")

Earlier, (9-28-2012) I posted here that I thought the highest skydive stunt being pursued by Felix Baumgartner was just a publicity stunt for Red Bull, that he was not "discovering" anything we don't already know and have known since Captain Kittinger's jump from so so so many years earlier.

Well now, some pathetic mid-life-crisis, overpaid idiot has done it again... and WOW he was 7'000 feet HIGHER than Baumgartner. (I am being sarcastic there in case you could not tell).

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/googles-se ... ve-record/

Google’s search czar just broke the record for highest sky dive ever. As reported by The New York Times, Alan Eustace jumped from a balloon that was 135,890 feet above the Earth.

This breaks the record set two years ago by Felix Baumgartner (as part of Red Bull Strata) by more than 7,000 feet.

Starting before dawn, Eustace’s helium-filled balloon rose for two hours above the New Mexico desert, near Roswell. When he reached peak altitude, he freed himself by firing a small explosive device, then plummeted at speeds over 800 mph. Eustace even broke the sound barrier, but he told the Times that he neither felt, nor heard the boom. Observers on the ground did, though.

Eustace’s jumped from nearly a mile and a half higher than Baumgartner’s October 14, 2012 record of 128,100 feet. His operation was also markedly different from Baumgartner’s Red Bull-sponsored jump, which had been preceded by years of marketing hype. Eustace planned his jump in secret with a tiny cabal of fellow engineers and technologists helping design the gear and plan logistics. He even declined support from Google, where he is vice president of search, because he didn’t want his stunt to become a public relations event.

Eschewing a complex capsule like the one used by Baumgartner, Eustace has nothing between himself and the stratosphere but his space suit. Paragon Space Development Corporation, a company that makes life support devices, coordinated the technical and logistical challenges of the project, which they called StratEx (short for Stratospheric Explorer). “The core team consisted of less than 20 people,” Taber MacCallum, formerly of Paragon, told WIRED.

“One of the most amazing things we learned was how to bring somebody back from that altitude,” MacCallum said. On Baumgartner’s Red Bull jump, he had a really hard time stabilizing himself, as the enormous velocities he accumulated in the thin upper stratosphere came crashing into the thicker air below. “In skydiving, you control your movements with your arms,” MacCallum said. At such high speeds, even the smallest movements make a huge difference, and it becomes very hard to control yourself. “On the Red Bull jump, we saw that even one of the best skydivers in the world could not safely bring himself back alone,” he said. The StratEx team overcame this problem by developing a stabilization device, called Saber, that looks like a huge shuttlecock.

Skydiving from the stratosphere isn’t just useful for daredevils chasing the brink of extremeness. Grant Anderson, Paragon’s president, says the technology it developed would be crucial for helping everybody from tourists to the military go to, and return safely from, the upper atmosphere. “So much of what we did was new, from the tech that helped keep the suit cool, to the communications we used to stay in contact, to the balloon system for releasing him,” Anderson said.

Neither Anderson nor MacCallum would say how much the project cost, and at this point we don’t know if Eustace paid for it himself, or secured outside funding.

MacCallum, a co-founder of Paragon, recently joined World View, a company that hopes to leverage StratEx into balloon-borne, edge-of-space tourism. “World View has acquired all the ballooning and stratospheric tech from Paragon,” MacCallum said.

As of publication, Google’s search results are still returning Felix Baumgartner’s Red Bull Stratos jump as the record for highest sky dive. Time to get back to work, Alan.

I am completely UN-impressed. IF these over-paid idiots were to develop a REAL and practical emergency escape system for astronauts (and/or cosmonauts) on the international space station or for space crews in vehicles ascending to or descending from space then I would be impressed. But these two most recent jumps are just STUPID wasteful publicity stunts in my opinion.