23 mile high skydive (he did it, AND LIVED)

[cartman]

On Monday, Oct. 8th, Felix Baumgartner will attempt to become the first human to break the sound barrier during a 23 mile high skydive. The attempt is being sponsored by Red Bull, and there will be a live feed of the jump.

Home | Red Bull Stratos (http://www.redbullstratos.com/)

If he successfully makes the jump, he'll never have to buy another beer (or vodka and Red Bull) again.

[cartman]

Weather conditions postponed today's attempt. They are going to try again tomorrow morning.

[Autumn]

Pussy.

[Apathetic Lurker]

Yup

[cartman]

Going to launch in about 45 minutes.

[Julio Riddols]

If he doesn't jump straight into a hurricane, I don't want to see it.

[Kodos]

A real man would do it without a chute.

[molson]

Dude's wearing a space suit because his blood would vaporize at this altitude.

[spleen1015]

Dude's wearing a space suit because his blood would vaporize at this altitude.

How do we know that for sure, hm?

[molson]

How do we know that for sure, hm?

Well, we will if anything goes wrong with the suit.

[Glengoyne]

Dude's wearing a space suit because his blood would vaporize at this altitude.

What would make blood "vaporize"?

Near vacuum conditions? Saying that someone's blood will vaporize seems like a bit of a dramatic way to say that. I mean vaporized blood would seemingly be one of the last things one would complain about in that situation.

[cartman]

And the launch is off again today. They are unsure about tomorrow.

[Passacaglia]

I hate it when they ice the kicker.

[molson]

What would make blood "vaporize"?

Near vacuum conditions? Saying that someone's blood will vaporize seems like a bit of a dramatic way to say that. I mean vaporized blood would seemingly be one of the last things one would complain about in that situation.

I'm not really sure, it's from a CNN article.

Record skydive attempt from stratosphere aborted - CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/09/us/skydiver-record-attempt/index.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_us+(RSS%3A+U.S).)

"t temperatures that could hit 70 degrees below zero Fahrenheit or lower, and an atmosphere so thin that his blood would vaporize if he were unprotected, his life will depend on the integrity of his pressure suit."

[stevew]

God needs to stop calling a ninja timeout.

[molson]

OK, now I agree that he's just a pussy. Just get your damn spacesuit on and jump out of the modified blimp contraption 23 miles to your probable death already.

[Dutch]

I hope his frozen parachute opens.

[cartman]

Next window where the weather might cooperate is Sunday, Oct. 14th

[CrimsonFox]

A real man would do it without a chute.

:D

[CrimsonFox]

I hope his frozen parachute opens.

:D:D

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Something tells me this crackpot has too much money. Hope his will has some nice charities in it, just in case...

[Scoobz0202]

They are filling up the balloon which from what I understand means it will happen today or it's not happening this year. Something about this being the only balloon (or last one?) and by starting this process it can't be used again if its not used today. It takes weeks to get another one. Or something like that.

[CraigSca]

Live feed just started.

[digamma]

The ascent takes 3 hours?

I guess I'll wait for the evening news.

[Scoobz0202]

They just said 2 hours.

[kingfc22]

Even at 55,000 feet it looks like he's in space.

[sterlingice]

Wow- amazing. Yeah, I'm just going to call that space

SI

[Kodos]

CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNONNNNNBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!

[kingfc22]

102,000 feet up and counting.

Yea, this dude is crazy.

[Buccaneer]

Getting nervous, so awesome.

[IlliniCub]

Is this problem with the face visor they keep talking about a potential deal breaker? Can he back out at this point even?

[sterlingice]

I've been turning the volume on and off and it seems like they don't know yet. It may also be that they know and are just letting it go to build dramatic tension

SI

[sterlingice]

I wonder if this is what it was like when Chuck Yeager or Charles Lindbergh were breaking records. Clearly there are not really live crowds but I wonder how many hits are on the website or mentions on Facebook or Twitter, which are kindof the modern equivalents for some items. I wonder how many hits are on this website today? For instance, CNN, BBC, and Yahoo have stories on their front news pages about it.

SI

[kingfc22]

Should be any minute now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Getting nervous, so awesome.

Plus 1. Watching live at work. Looking forward to the jump.

[Jughead Spock]

damn, racing up now.... 2000 ft/min

[kingfc22]

damn, racing up now.... 2000 ft/min

Yea, it had slowed to a near stall and then all of a sudden it started racing upwards again.

[kingfc22]

Getting nervous, so awesome.

This.

[Critch]

oh get on with it.

[Crapshoot]

If you guys have Discovery HD, they are showing it on that as well as YouTube.

[CraigSca]

Will have to hit that - after watching for two hours, I've lost my feed.

[sterlingice]

Is this kindof the whole concept between an airlock and diving to not get the bends?

SI

[kingfc22]

I can't even begin to imagine what must be going through his mind right now.

[sterlingice]

Capsule is starting to fall kindof quickly

SI

[Crapshoot]

I'd be pissing my pants.

[CleBrownsfan]

here we go!

[JPhillips]

Door open!

[kingfc22]

Holy Shit!!!

[IlliniCub]

The doors open!

[Jughead Spock]

good lord

[CleBrownsfan]

I don't even know to say.... This is just insane!!!

[kingfc22]

These images are incredible.

[tucker rocky]

Spinning like a top there for a moment.

[kingfc22]

Spinning like a top there for a moment.

Pretty amazing how he stopped it on a dime and started going down straight.

[tarcone]

What a nut.

[hoopsguy]

Visor fogging up - was able to make that out.

[tucker rocky]

New meaning for Red Bull gives you wings. :D

[sterlingice]

Aw. He didn't break the freefall record. This is going to be a long, long way down

SI

[kingfc22]

Looks like he will need to try it again as he didn't break the record for longest free fall.

[hoopsguy]

Hmm, missed the "freefall" record by about 15 seconds - does that suggest that Felix pulled early, assuming he was jumping from higher?

[Jughead Spock]

Didn't hit the speed of sound either. WHAT A SISSY

[kingfc22]

They need to hire a new "wind direction" guy.

[tarcone]

He landed on his feet.

[rowech]

I can't imagine watching a moon landing.

[Radii]

That was incredible.

[Jughead Spock]

^ absolutely. Amazing.

[Crapshoot]

Wow. Just wow.

[PackerFanatic]

That was really damn cool.

[Critch]

Looking forward to the video from his suit camera.

[rkmsuf]

uh.....nice job?

Thanks for accomplishing......nothing. But nice pics.

[Scoobz0202]

what

[rkmsuf]

They need to hire a new "wind direction" guy.


"North"

"Oh shi, East!"

[DaddyTorgo]

Hmm, missed the "freefall" record by about 15 seconds - does that suggest that Felix pulled early, assuming he was jumping from higher?

I'm guessing the chute was rigged to an altimeter...otherwise he could have missed pulling it if something went wrong...

[DaddyTorgo]

Didn't hit the speed of sound either. WHAT A SISSY

Actually he did. Mach 1.24

[sterlingice]

During the broadcast, the highest speed they showed was like 680 but they also said the onboard instruments would be more accurate

SI

[sabotai]

.....I want to do that.

(But I suppose I should at least learn to sky dive first before I space dive......or maybe even start with bungee jumping because I haven't done that either.)

[tucker rocky]

http://i.minus.com/ibroapdCOl60gX.gif

[CrimsonFox]

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8Oq2Xl7oiws" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Marmel]

uh.....nice job?

Thanks for accomplishing......nothing. But nice pics.

It took you 3 years to come up with this?

[Matthean]

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/315549_538647892831335_981651490_n.jpg

[Logan]

After a 15 year holdout, I finally saw Titanic...so I can point out that the quote is wrong.

[sterlingice]

Is is the "woohoo" part?

SI

[Breeze]

Has anybody seen the mysteries at the muesem piece where Joe Kittenger does this to "test" the functionality of the two parachute system. If you haven't seen it, look for it. Amazing stuff.

There is also some additional information about the on the jump that got editted out. Most of it deals with a couple of shorter test jumps and the problems he ran into. Here's that information....

Amazing 17,000 feet free-fall : Video : Travel Channel (http://www.travelchannel.com/video/amazing-17-000-feet-free-fall-12539)

[sovereignstar v2]

Haven't had a chance to read much of the news this morning. Was it ever mentioned why the parachute was deployed before he could break the freefall time record?

[cartman]

Haven't had a chance to read much of the news this morning. Was it ever mentioned why the parachute was deployed before he could break the freefall time record?

It was set to deploy at a certain altitude. From what I can gather, he ended up going about 100mph faster than he expected to go, and that reduced the free fall time.

[DaddyTorgo]

Haven't had a chance to read much of the news this morning. Was it ever mentioned why the parachute was deployed before he could break the freefall time record?

Yeah - that was my question. Was the parachute on an altimeter or some other method of auto-deploying (i assume)? What went on there.

[DaddyTorgo]

It was set to deploy at a certain altitude. From what I can gather, he ended up going about 100mph faster than he expected to go, and that reduced the free fall time.

Aaah. Figured as much.

[whomario]

reacted gracious enough when asked about it, too. (in a "it´s fine he gets to keep it" way) Thought it was pretty cool to have Kittinger doing the checklist with him, great fitting voice for it as well.

[cartman]

Someone on the ground caught the sonic boom on video.

[cartman]

Red Bull has released the POV cam footage of the jump. Simply awesome.

<object width="640" height="360"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/raiFrxbHxV0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="//www.youtube.com/v/raiFrxbHxV0?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="360" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

[Peregrine]

Incredible/

[britrock88]

Am I seeing a heart rate of ~170 bpm?

[Shkspr]

Am I seeing a heart rate of ~170 bpm?

No, I'm pretty sure I only got up to ~130 watching the video.

[PilotMan]

I'm pretty sure I saw 170 too. Thats a helluva adrenaline rush.

[BYU 14]

Just wow, the ultimate thrill ride!

[HomerSimpson98]

Awesome. It went actually longer than I thought. What could possibly be going through that dude's head during all that time?

"I wonder if Ridley is going to fuck my fantasy football team again this week"?

"I wonder how many awesome MBBF posts I missed while I was free-falling from space"?

"How much Shout! is it going to take to get the shit stains out of my suit after I land"?

Granted, he may be a bit more sophisticated than me, but I figure thats a good starting sample.

[cartman]

They released some more footage today, this time from the GoPro cameras he had on his body. I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching these videos. Be sure to set the quality to 1080p and watch full screen.

GoPro: Red Bull Stratos - The Full Story - YouTube (http://youtu.be/dYw4meRWGd4)

[stevew]

Crazy video.

I would love to be involved in some epic 14-15th century debate about the flat earth and then you pull out your phone to show the guy so he'll shup up. Will probably work until the TimeCop's show up and murder you.

[Ryan S]

A Google VP breaks the skydive record.

A Google Exec Just Skydived 136K Feet, Smashing the World Record | WIRED (http://www.wired.com/2014/10/googles-search-czar-just-smashed-felix-baumgartners-sky-dive-record/?mbid=social_fb)