Astronaut parachutes from 30km up!

I know this is an old video of what appears to be a gravity experiment, but i thought it was pretty amazing and thought others may like it. I've done freefall before and i thought that felt fast, but 990kph!

www.videosift.com...

Thats one brave guy there, it's amazing what these people go through so we can get a little more information about the amazing world we live in.

CX.

If I'm not mistaken this may be the famed "Captain Joesph Kittinger" leap from 102,000 ft. circa 1960. Hairy. Big eyes white knuckles full-goose-bozo hairy. Were you aware of his connection to the Roswell stories? Seems he may have been "The Red Haired" billigerant Captain that Dr. Friedman has mentioned from time to time as the guy who hassled local mortician and ambulance driver G. Dennis... small world huh? Maybe too small?

Thanks, I enjoyed seeing the video agin,

Victor K.

[edit on 27-5-2006 by V Kaminski]

[edit on 27-5-2006 by V Kaminski]

Wow!, thats totally insane. Sorta re-defines not being scared of heights eh!

Can you imagine flying along, looking out your window seat and seeing this crazy bastard screaming by!

The biggest balls of them all. Hats off

What's even nuttier, his suit's glove became unsealed and he was losing oxygen the whole way down... having a shirt sleeve open at near-Mach... The guy's got horseshoes'. Just looking down at that height, no, looking off my balcony gives me the "willies". Imagine what he must have felt as he stepped off? I'm also pretty sure he was awarded a medal for bravery for his efforts too. I wonder if his suit built up much heat when the air got thicker?

Victor K.

[edit on 27-5-2006 by V Kaminski]

He was a test pilot actually. There is some debate whether he actually broke Mach 1 on the way down or not. If he didn't he came very close to it. IIRC they estimate he was at Mach 0.9 or so at terminal velocity. It was a test to see if a pilot could survive a high altitude ejection or not. They wanted to see if an SR-71 pilot would be able to escape the plane or if they would have to have a pod system.

[edit on 5/27/2006 by Zaphod58]