New NASA footage gets a little spacey

Originally posted by conar
reminds me of Joe Kitinger who jumped from 100,000 feet in 1960.
Space begins at 63,000 feet for man, because you die very quickly above that.

The generally accepted altitude for "space" is 100 km (62.2 miles, or 328,416 feet). Most people are going start struggling to breath above 12,000 feet.

Based on the footage of earth it doesn't seem that there would be enough atmosphere to allow for any sort of sounds to be transmitted, though perhaps the fisheye lens they are using is accentuating the curvature of the earth making it seem to be at a greater altitude than it really is. I also thought of the movie "2001" when I heard the audio - a very weird and sci-fi "soundtrack" if there ever was one, totally appropriate. Usually space footage tends to be rather mundane and pedestrian; at least that part of the video is pretty cool.

reply to post by Schrecken Licht


Research balloons are capable of reaching this altitude (~50km) so there is some air.