The Cellar Image of the Day

xoxoxoBruce Thursday Mar 18 12:23 AM

Mar 18, 2010: Freefall... 23 miles

That's right, 23 miles, over 120,000 ft, is what Felix Baumgartner is planning to do, with the help of Red Bull, Joe Kittinger (the current record holder), and a bunch of veteran NASA/USAF/Aerospace people.

Quote:

But now Fearless Felix, as his fans call him, has something more difficult on the agenda: jumping from a helium balloon in the stratosphere at least 120,000 feet above Earth. Within about half a minute, he figures, he would be going 690 miles per hour and become the first skydiver to break the speed of sound. After a free fall lasting five and a half minutes, his parachute would open and land him about 23 miles below the balloon.

This is very risky business, and takes more than big balls.

Quote:

One of the chief concerns has been to avoid the problem that almost killed Mr. Kittinger during Project Excelsior. He was supposed to be stabilized during his fall by a small drogue parachute, but on one training jump in 1959 it did not open because the cord got tangled around his neck. As a result, Mr. Kittinger’s body went into a spin that reached 120 revolutions per minute as he plummeted more than 60,000 feet. He blacked out and regained consciousness only after his reserve parachute opened automatically about a mile above the ground.

Gives, going out for a spin, a whole new context.

I wish him well.

link

gvidas Thursday Mar 18 01:03 AM

'Good Music on Youtube' crosspost: the track 'Dayvan Cowboy' by Boards of Canada has a music video which the first third or so of is built out of footage from Project Excelsior. Gorgeous and amazing.

xoxoxoBruce Thursday Mar 18 03:17 AM

Watching gvidas' video, I noticed there was a video of Joe Kittinger telling his story, with video of his jump.

Antimatter Friday Mar 19 05:30 AM

Is it just me or is somebody flicking Mr. Kittinger the bird @6:02?

Griff Friday Mar 19 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gvidas

'Good Music on Youtube' crosspost: the track 'Dayvan Cowboy' by Boards of Canada has a music video which the first third or so of is built out of footage from Project Excelsior. Gorgeous and amazing.

Very nice!

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