Felix Baumgartner

[The Kraken]

Just watched the descent online again; his estimated speed maxed out at 729mph, around a minute or so into the fall.

 

That spin he was in just looked absolutely crazy.

[dubai_phil]

He did it

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/9607604/Skydiver-Felix-Baumgartner-attempts-to-break-sound-barrier-live.html

20.13 (13.13) The jump broke another record too! More than 7.1 million people tuned into YouTube for updates.

20.00 (13.00) He achieved the fastest ever freefall speed at 706mph during the four minutes and 19 seconds of free, according to spokesman Sarah Anderson, but she confirmed that he did not set a new record for the longest freefall.

 

19.53 (12.53) Felix Baumgartner did break the sound barrier, a spokesman has just confirmed.

 

[alpine_saint]

He did it

 

He pulled his chute 20 seconds too early and blew one record.

 

I've just discovered that my wife's sister knows Baumgartner, and thinks hes a bit of an arrogant arsehole.

 

I do know that in a recent newspaper poll, two-thirds of Austrians indicated they didnt give a sh*t about what he is doing.

[Turkish]

He pulled his chute 20 seconds too early and blew one record.

 

I've just discovered that my wife's sister knows Baumgartner, and thinks hes a bit of an arrogant arsehole.

 

I do know that in a recent newspaper poll, two-thirds of Austrians indicated they didnt give a sh*t about what he is doing.

 

I had a feeling you wouldnt like him.

[lifeintheslowlane]

I watched it from the Red Bull website stream and the build up of tension was brilliant...the commentary wasn't too intrusive either. All those little doubts that were thrown into the mix...was his visor heater working properly...was he going to get into an uncontrollable spin...would his body stand up to the stresses.

 

The first part of the free-fall where all you could hear was the sound of his rapid breathing was pure theatre and then to see him spinning uncontrollably...I think my resperation rate was matching his.

 

Brilliant piece of drama in real-time. Thanks for posting the original link Bexy.

Edited 14 October, 2012 by lifeintheslowlane
Speller

[alpine_saint]

I had a feeling you wouldnt like him.

 

Did I say that ?

[alpine_saint]

I watched it from the Red Bull website stream and the build up of tension was brilliant...the commentary wasn't too intrusive either. All those little doubts that were thrown into the mix...was his visor heater working properly...was he going to get into an uncontrollable spin...would his body stand up to the stresses.

 

The first part of the free-fall where all you could hear was the sound of his rapid breathing was pure theatre and then to see him spinning uncontrollably...I think my resperation rate was matching his.

 

Brilliant piece of drama in real-time. Thanks for posting the original link Bexy.

 

Reminded me of that scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey

[Turkish]

Did I say that ?

 

Do you then?

 

Bit harsh to say he 'blew one record' when he was travelling at 700 mph from 24 miles above the earth!

[The Kraken]

Do you then?

 

Bit harsh to say he 'blew one record' when he was travelling at 700 mph from 24 miles above the earth!

 

I think he'll probably be able to find it in his heart to live with his abject failure of only breaking a few world records.

[Jonnyboy]

Come on Alpy, even Turkano has suspended his cynicism!

[dubai_phil]

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=393255954080668&id=391339787605618

 

hahahaha

 

Oops.

 

Gotta be so careful with Social Media.

 

Nice one Red Bull Stratos

 

Thanks also to Alps for confirming what all of us really knew about people with cellars

[krissyboy31]

Anywhere to watch this back?

[S-Clarke]

Anywhere to watch this back?

 

This is the main part

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT1DhcQg0Os

[saintfully]

Thought it was supercool amazeballs.

 

That is all.

[Lighthouse]

A lot of people are tweeting 833mph as the top speed, which equated to Mach 1.24 at the time. Wow.

[Colinjb]

A lot of people are tweeting 833mph as the top speed, which equated to Mach 1.24 at the time. Wow.

 

That would explain why the jump was a little quicker then expected!!

[The Kraken]

A lot of people are tweeting 833mph as the top speed, which equated to Mach 1.24 at the time. Wow.

 

That's 100mph off the estimated speed at the time! And pretty bloody incredible. Although it would perhaps explain why he didn't beat Kittinger's freefall time record; he was going too fast!!

[Lighthouse]

I suspect had he waited another 20 seconds to open the shoot and broken Kittinger's record, he might have made rather a large hole in New Mexico.

[Sheaf Saint]

That's 100mph off the estimated speed at the time! And pretty bloody incredible. Although it would perhaps explain why he didn't beat Kittinger's freefall time record; he was going too fast!!

 

Is there any way, I wonder, to determine at what altitude he deployed his 'chute? Because then he would certainly have the record for the furthest distance traveled in freefall even if it was a shorter time.

[Lighthouse]

Is there any way, I wonder, to determine at what altitude he deployed his 'chute? Because then he would certainly have the record for the furthest distance traveled in freefall even if it was a shorter time.

 

I would be absolutely astonished if his altitude wasn't one of the parameters being monitored during the jump. I am sure they will know, even if they don't release it publically for some reason.

[The Kraken]

Is there any way, I wonder, to determine at what altitude he deployed his 'chute? Because then he would certainly have the record for the furthest distance traveled in freefall even if it was a shorter time.

 

Apparently his suit was built with all sorts of tech, which needs to be evaluated by the relevant authority before his records get ratified. But you'd imagine that would be one of them, and will get released in due course.

 

Just been reading his twitter; sounds like the spin was really serious.

 

There was a time I really thought I was in trouble. I had to decide to fight all the way down and I finally got stable.

 

That spin became so violent it was hard to know how to get out of it. I was able to get it under control and break the speed of sound. I could feel myself break the speed of sound. I could feel the air building up and then I hit it.

 

And apparently he has said that will be his last ever jump, he's knocking it all on the head now. I guess after that, no other skydive will come close.

[GAS]

Here he goes...

 

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

This took 7 yrs of planning. Is he some rich kid who is bored with life and needs a buzz? I'm really not sure what the point of this is. But saying that anyone with a name like Felix Tree Gardner has to be a bit excentric.

[dubai_phil]

This took 7 yrs of planning. Is he some rich kid who is bored with life and needs a buzz? I'm really not sure what the point of this is. But saying that anyone with a name like Felix Tree Gardner has to be a bit excentric.

 

 

Have seen the same reaction in comments in the press.

 

1) If you think it was a waste of money then stop buying canned soft drinks in supermarkets, especially energy drinks - that's what paid for it.

 

2) The Spacesuit was a new technology. It was built with close liaison with NASA - this was a test to check it out. It will be the template for new designs. (As such they will possibly make a profit from it)

 

3) The jump also provided data for potential new safety/evacuation systems for future Manned Spaceflight. An example concept being that it could allow future shuttles to have ejector seats which could help to save lives.

[PhilippineSaint]

 

Have seen the same reaction in comments in the press.

 

1) If you think it was a waste of money then stop buying canned soft drinks in supermarkets, especially energy drinks - that's what paid for it.

 

2) The Spacesuit was a new technology. It was built with close liaison with NASA - this was a test to check it out. It will be the template for new designs. (As such they will possibly make a profit from it)

 

3) The jump also provided data for potential new safety/evacuation systems for future Manned Spaceflight. An example concept being that it could allow future shuttles to have ejector seats which could help to save lives.

 

Shuttles had ejector seats as the six astronauts and a teacher proved but were just not good enough.

[alpine_saint]

Shuttles had ejector seats as the six astronauts and a teacher proved but were just not good enough.

 

Erm, no it didnt :

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_disaster#Crew_escape_was_not_possible

[dubai_phil]

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Bull-Stratos/391339787605618

 

Brilliant!

 

In case you did not follow the link last night Red Bull Stratos FB page had a very unfortunate Typo where they missed the o out of count in "We knew we could count on you."

 

They obviously deleted that overnight and posted an apology this morning and said that "they cant always be perfect"

 

And mistyped a u instead of an a.

 

Tee hee

Edited 15 October, 2012 by dubai_phil

[saintbletch]

Erm, no it didnt :

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_disaster#Crew_escape_was_not_possible

 

As they were sitting on seats and were ejected from the craft, I have a feeling that the inappropriately named African Phil the PhilippineSaint was aiming for a very dark brand of humour.

[saintbletch]

That's 100mph off the estimated speed at the time! And pretty bloody incredible. Although it would perhaps explain why he didn't beat Kittinger's freefall time record; he was going too fast!!

 

Good point.

 

If my maths is up to it, 833mph is 0.231 miles per second.

 

Meaning that he was falling at 1221 feet per second.

 

I'm not sure at what height the parachute opened, and he might have slowed considerably once he entered the atmosphere, but I suspect you're right. He travelled too quickly.

[alpine_saint]

Was the parachute automatically deployed, based on an altimiter reading, in case he blacked out or worse ?

 

Would then explain why the freefall was shorter in duration than expected.

[Dimond Geezer]

That was probably the most incredible thing I've seen, for me, it was similar to watching the first ever Space Shuttle landing, and to land on his feet was awesome, I fully expected him to land in a crumpled heap. I nearly didn't get to see it as my wife dished up tea as he was running through his checks. Myself & no.2 son wanted to watch it live, the others capitulated, so there were four of us huddled in our tiny computer room with roast dinner on our laps (almost literally in the case of my youngest). It's what I imagine it was like for the moon landing, all huddled around a small screen.

 

With regards to the chute opening, it said on the Red Bull streaming that his visor had misted, and he was unsure of his exact altitude, so he deployed his chute early.

 

I hadn't realised until this morning that the Comms man at mission control was none other than Joe Kittenger the last crazy guy to jump from space, and also yesterday was the 65th anniversary of the first manned supersonic flight, nice synergy I think.

[The Kraken]

Was the parachute automatically deployed, based on an altimiter reading, in case he blacked out or worse ?

 

Would then explain why the freefall was shorter in duration than expected.

 

There were safety features built in; for example if his spin had gotten more out of control it would have automatically deployed his 'chute to correct it.

 

You say "blacked out or worse". There is a part midway through the fall, the audio is very scratchy but after a minute or so of silence Baumgartner says something which I'm sure sounds very similar to "blacked out". Being as he went through the sound barrier (who knows what effect that had on his body) you'd simply have to assume that he had all sorts of redundancy built into the suit for his parachute to self-activate.

 

Given that he's set all manner of world records (highest manned baloon flight, highest freefall, fastest skydive) while its a shame that he didn't get the longest duration I'm sure he won't categorise it as anything but an enormous success.

Edited 15 October, 2012 by The Kraken

[Jonnyboy]

[GAS]

 

Have seen the same reaction in comments in the press.

 

1) If you think it was a waste of money then stop buying canned soft drinks in supermarkets, especially energy drinks - that's what paid for it.

 

2) The Spacesuit was a new technology. It was built with close liaison with NASA - this was a test to check it out. It will be the template for new designs. (As such they will possibly make a profit from it)

 

3) The jump also provided data for potential new safety/evacuation systems for future Manned Spaceflight. An example concept being that it could allow future shuttles to have ejector seats which could help to save lives.

Wow, that's a relief and here's me thinking it was a waste of money. I don't drink energy drinks and as far as I'm concerned they can stick space technology where the sun don't shine. But it was good tv.

[dubai_phil]

Well I lol'd

 

[Saint137]

 

in summary: daft bastard

 

Seriously impressive to be at peace to that extent with the threat of imminent death. I see it finally caught up with him