Baumgartner Jumps from 13 Miles in All-Up Test

[Guest]

Felix Baumgartner makes practice jump in a full systems test. Looks like he's going to succeed in setting the new record, which has stood for over 50 years, since Joe Kittinger set the unofficial one back in 1960. I wonder what Michel Fournier is thinking right now...I can guess. Story on Space.com

Please see also -- In-Depth Story by Marcia Dunn of Associated Press (via Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

mh
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"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[shah269 0]

Did he swoop the landing?

Life through good thoughts, good words, and good deeds is necessary to ensure happiness and to keep chaos at bay.

The only thing that falls from the sky is birdshit and fools!

[wrightskyguy 1]

They faked the whole thing on the same sound stage they used for the Apollo moon landings.

John Wright

World's most beloved skydiver

[mjosparky 4]

A Russian named Eugene Andreev holds the freefall altitude record. In 1962 he jumped from 24,500m, 80380 ft. (source FAI) Kittinger was using a drogue and it is not considered “freefall”.

Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[Southern_Man 0]

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I wonder what Michel Fournier is thinking right now...I can guess.

mh
.

Probably thinking "Thank God I don't have to [again] go through the farce of pretending to actually want to break that record"

"What if there were no hypothetical questions?"

[riddler 0]

Quote

Did he swoop the landing?

I heard he was taking a wing suit, and landing it without a parachute. Huge ramp, foam peanuts, the whole thing

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[riddler 0]

On another note, I recall one person in Canada attempting the jump a few years ago, and the balloon became untethered and flew away during his interview. Does anyone recall the jumper's name?

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[theonlyski 8]

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Quote

Did he swoop the landing?

I heard he was taking a wing suit, and landing it without a parachute. Huge ramp, foam peanuts, the whole thing

Exit spot is 1,000 miles east.

"I may be a dirty pirate hooker...but I'm not about to go stand on the corner." iluvtofly
DPH -7, TDS 578, Muff 5153, SCR 14890
I'm an asshole, and I approve this message

[Born2Late 0]

I bet he's really chomping at the bit, now . Who wouldn't want to make that jump?

[Guest]

Quote

A Russian named Eugene Andreev holds the freefall altitude record. In 1962 he jumped from 24,500m, 80380 ft. (source FAI) Kittinger was using a drogue and it is not considered “freefall”.

Sparky

Soviet AF Capt Yevgeny Andreev set the FAI OFFICIAL record.

Kittinger set the unofficial absolute altitude record for exiting a flying machine, and he wasn't doing it as a stunt. He risked his life to test survival systems, working for Col John Paul Stapp MD at the Hollomon Aeromedical Research Center at Hollomon AFB, NM.

In May 1966, Nick Piantanida would have broken the record but he couldn't separate from his capsule's life-support line and had to land with the gondola. As it was, he set a new manned altitude balloon record of 23 miles, which also stands to this day.

Baumgartner will at least match Piantanida's altitude record, but he will definitely break the free-fall record.

Baumgartner also has Col Joe on his staff. I have every confidence that he's going to make it.

mh
.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[HighJB 0]

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On another note, I recall one person in Canada attempting the jump a few years ago, and the balloon became untethered and flew away during his interview. Does anyone recall the jumper's name?

Michel Fournier

ça passe ou ça frotte

[airdvr 210]

Quote

Quote

A Russian named Eugene Andreev holds the freefall altitude record. In 1962 he jumped from 24,500m, 80380 ft. (source FAI) Kittinger was using a drogue and it is not considered “freefall”.

Sparky

Soviet AF Capt Yevgeny Andreev set the FAI OFFICIAL record.

Kittinger set the unofficial absolute altitude record for exiting a flying machine, and he wasn't doing it as a stunt. He risked his life to test survival systems, working for Col John Paul Stapp MD at the Hollomon Aeromedical Research Center at Hollomon AFB, NM.

In May 1966, Nick Piantanida would have broken the record but he couldn't separate from his capsule's life-support line and had to land with the gondola. As it was, he set a new manned altitude balloon record of 23 miles, which also stands to this day.

Baumgartner will at least match Piantanida's altitude record, but he will definitely break the free-fall record.

Baumgartner also has Col Joe on his staff. I have every confidence that he's going to make it.

mh
.

If I'm not mistaken Piantanida
died in a later attempt. No one knows why exactly how he lost suit pressure right about the altitude Baumgartner achieved yesterday.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[Born2Late 0]

Piantanida died following his third attempt. His suit suffered an explosive loss of pressure @~54K'. No one knows how his suit failed. It took 25 minutes to get him back on the ground despite immediately cutting him away from the balloon. Unconscious when they pulled him from the gondola. He never came out of a coma, & died months later. He wrote a letter to his three year old daughter while suited up (to be opened on her 18th birthday in 1981), just before launching.

He reached 123K' on his second attempt. He couldn't jump because his O2 connector jammed onto his suit. He couldn't free it wearing the pressure gloves.