Skydiver to try record-breaking jump from 23 miles up

[Hum]

ROSWELL, New Mexico (AP) ? Austrian skydiver and extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner hopes to take the leap of his life on Tuesday, attempting the highest, fastest free fall in history.

If he survives, the man dubbed "Fearless Felix" could be the first skydiver to break the sound barrier. If he doesn't, a tragic fall could be live-streamed on the Internet for the world to see.

The 43-year-old former military parachutist is scheduled to jump from a balloon-hoisted capsule 23 miles above Roswell on Tuesday morning. He wants to break the record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who jumped from an open gondola at an altitude of 19.5 miles. Kittinger's speed of 614 mph was just shy of breaking the sound barrier at that height.

And while he and his team of experts recognize the worst-case scenarios ? including "boiling" blood and exploding lungs ? they have confidence in their built-in solutions. Those solutions are something NASA is watching closely. The space agency is interested in the potential for escape systems on future rocket ships.

This death-defying venture is being sponsored by energy drink maker, Red Bull, which has funded other extreme athletic events.

Red Bull has been promoting a live Internet stream of the event from all cameras except those on Baumgartner's body.

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[chrisj1968]

wow. some of the ways people get their kicks

[Hum]

I smell Death.

[chrisj1968]

i see a crimson red gooey spot in the desert real soon

[Growled Member]

Gulp! I hope he makes it.

[DocM]

This is a precursor to true SpaceDiving - developing suits and methods for bailing out of spacecraft at altitudes beyond the Karman Line - 62 miles / 100 kilometers, the boundary of space. This is where Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two and XCOR's Lynx will fly.

As for this guy - he's already jumped from 18 miles and made it, so....

BTW: sport HALO (high altitude / low open) jumpers jump from 4-5 miles all the time.

[philcruicks]

Live stream is available here: http://www.youtube.com/redbull

I can't wait to see how this goes, hopefully breaking the sound barrier in a space suit won't kill him.

[Hum]

ROSWELL, N.M. ? Plans for extreme athlete and skydiver Felix Baumgartner to make a death-defying, 23-mile free fall into the southeastern New Mexico desert were on hold Tuesday morning due to winds, but his team was still hoping the weather would clear in time to make the jump.

Translation: He chickened out -- buawk buk buk buk .... :laugh:

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/09/felix-baumgartner-supersonic-jump-on-weather-hold/?intcmp=trending#ixzz28nzuptC2

[philcruicks]

Launch delayed until 11:30 MDT, 17:30 GMT...good and bad..its been delayed...but that means I can new get home from work to watch :-)

[ILikeTobacco]

Live stream is available here: http://www.youtube.com/redbull

I can't wait to see how this goes, hopefully breaking the sound barrier in a space suit won't kill him.

I am hoping it doesn't kill him, not because of his safety and well being, but because what it means for the rest of us. If it kills him, well he knew the risks in doing it so I don't think it will be a sad death, but rather a very important and meaningful one. One of the major limitations in commercial space flight is the problem of safety. Widespread commercial space flight will not be allowed for the public until it is deemed safe enough. One safety concern is what to do in the case of a failed launch. If he survived this, it will bring us one step closer to companies having a safer method of action in case of a launch failure.

[ILikeTobacco]

The jump just got delayed to the target of 11:30 MDT.

[protocol7]

Been waiting ages to see this, hope it goes ahead.

Ever since I saw footage of the Kittinger jump I always wanted to do this.

[DocM]

Hum -

Winds are a huge deal here as they can cause both balloon and jumper to drift miles away from the approved jump zone. No need to go to jail & pay huge fines over this.

[FightAndLive]

Some one should ask him if the moon is real...

[Hum]

^ And grab some of that cheese !

[ichi]

One of the major limitations in commercial space flight is the problem of safety. Widespread commercial space flight will not be allowed for the public until it is deemed safe enough. One safety concern is what to do in the case of a failed launch. If he survived this, it will bring us one step closer to companies having a safer method of action in case of a launch failure.

But that's not stopping current commercial flights :huh: I mean, it's not like you can jump off them, no matter what goes wrong up there.

[+Warwagon MVC]

The code name for this project is "Red Mist". Because once they are done that's all that's going to be left.

[Crisp]

So it's not even a Space jump that people keep banging on about. The edge of Space is 62 miles.

[Intersect]

So it's not even a Space jump that people keep banging on about. The edge of Space is 62 miles.

its higher than any one else has jumped from so :p

[Crisp]

its higher than any one else has jumped from so :p

Just getting annoyed at my Facebook feed... "OMG SPACE JUMP!!!"... no, just no.

[Hum]

its higher than any one else has jumped from so :p

I saw Superman do it first.

[Intersect]

Just getting annoyed at my Facebook feed... "OMG SPACE JUMP!!!"... no, just no.

relax guyz why so serious? its just a facebook feed. you know its not a proper space jump

let the n00biez have there fun.

[Intersect]

its been aborted until tomorrow according to the live feed.

[ILikeTobacco]

But that's not stopping current commercial flights :huh: I mean, it's not like you can jump off them, no matter what goes wrong up there.

It doesn't apply to current commercial jets because there is no way to quickly get ready for the jump and get out in time before it crashed. The actual long term goal is not to do high altitude jumps. The long term goal is to get to a point where you can enter the atmosphere and survive that free fall. While Nasa is looking at it for aborting launches, even they know that if you are still in the atmosphere when the systems fail, there isn't much that can be done to save the crew. They are interested in solutions that allow someone to jump just outside of the atmosphere were explosions tend not to happen due to a lack of air.

[ichi]

It doesn't apply to current commercial jets because there is no way to quickly get ready for the jump and get out in time before it crashed. The actual long term goal is not to do high altitude jumps. The long term goal is to get to a point where you can enter the atmosphere and survive that free fall. While Nasa is looking at it for aborting launches, even they know that if you are still in the atmosphere when the systems fail, there isn't much that can be done to save the crew. They are interested in solutions that allow someone to jump just outside of the atmosphere were explosions tend not to happen due to a lack of air.

It's really great for the NASA, but I'm not sure about the required equipment and training making it into commercial flights.

Even if passengers could jump from current commercial aircrafts, most (if not all) would likely die anyway from parachute entaglements or breaking all their bones at landing, assuming you could fit all the equipment required to survive the lack of oxigen and the freezing temperatures.

And then parachutes are frigging expensive to maintain and handle properly, I'd bet companies would rather not go that way.