Daredevil Plans to Jump to Earth From 23 Miles Up—for Science!

blogs.discovermagazine.com...

Quote from source:
Are you ready for some free fall?

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner officially announced that sometime this year, he intends to jump from a balloon at a height of nearly 23 miles, breaking the 50-year-old world record for the highest parachute jump held by retired U.S. Air Force pilot Joe Kittinger. Kittinger is the Stratos mission’s capcom (short for capsule communicator), which means that he will be the voice in Baumgartner’s helmet. Kittinger’s advice to his successor: “Have fun, enjoy it, and tell us all about it when you get down” [Scientific American].

Baumgartner is a BASE jumper who once flew a glider across the English Channel, but he and his team say they have loftier goals than simply a world record and a huge adrenaline rush. If he makes the jump, Baumgartner could be the first person to break the sound barrier without the benefit of an aircraft, and his crazy stunt could provide valuable data on how that affects the body. Just as Kittinger did, Baumgartner will go up in a balloon, though his pressure suit, capsule and monitoring equipment will be much more advanced [Reuters]. Baumgartner says that a successful test would also benefit future spaceflight, showing that if astronauts had a problem as their craft entered the stratosphere, it theoretically would be possible for them to bail out and safely reach the ground.

I remember seeing Kittinger's fall and was amazed at that. I remember his glove I think had a pressure leak in it or something. I would have been so scared to jump from his distance let alone 23 miles. Would be one hell of a ride though. It will be fun to hear and watch when it happens. Can't wait for the video!!

Any thoughts?

Pred...

Please delete this thread, it's a duplicate. The original is here:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I've always loved the cam video's of kittinger's jump and seeing the earth curved out below him as he was freefalling. The first time I saw that video I was in awe and all I could think of was, how great would that be to jump from heights that far and above the world. Will I ever get a chance to do a jump like that? Probably not ever, so normal skydiving will have to stay for now. Can't wait to see how this guys jump goes.

As Arbitrageur mentioned this topic is already available here: Skydiver to fall from 120,000 feet!!

Please visit the above link for further discussion.

Thank you,

Jak