23 Mile High Skydive

[Wizzo]

Felix Baumgartner seems determined to set a new world record by doing an extreme jumping attempt.

The project dubbed as “Stratos”, Felix will start his journey on the edge of space that is 23 miles up from the earth. He’d be clad in just a pressurized suit with a parachute. He will ascend in a tiny capsule attached to one of the biggest hot air balloons ever created.

The giant balloon filled with helium needs at least three hours to reach 23 miles up from the earth. Once it reaches 120,000 feet, Felix will leap from the capsule. The descent will take him 20 minutes and his speed is estimated to reach more than 690mph. Such speed would entail huge pressure and could result to blood boiling, eyeballs popping out, and brain bursting. That’s why he will be wearing a special pressure suit that can tolerate temperatures measuring at -70 degrees Celsius. Even the parachute is packed with oxygen that can last up to 20 minutes. This is important since the parachute will only open when he’s less than 5,000ft from the ground.

The biggest danger lies in the fact that the balloon could rupture shortly after take-off. When that happens, Felix wouldn't have enough time to open his hatch and escape. That means the capsule would be crashing down the ground with him trapped inside.

At any rate, Felix and the rest of the team had been preparing for this attempt for the last seven years.

[Ian]

Hmm, I thought he was going higher than that Wiz, this link reckons Joe Kittinger jumped from 31 miles back in the '60's.




Bit of a discrepancy here, the vid says 31mls high but the front of LIFE mag at the end says 19mls.

[Scott]

Lost in translation.  19miles is 31km

[Scott]

23miles...if I was up that high I'd be nervous about there being enough gravity to pull me back to earth.  Wonder where the record will stop?  When someone floats off into space 

[Ian]

Cheers Scott, it's that infernal European cr*p again ain't it.   

[David]

The blood boiling, eyeballs popping out, and brain bursting could be a down side! 

[Ian]

You gotta admit though, he has great big brass ones, be blowed if I could go up that high and just fall out of the capsule. I did read a report on this a while ago and he said he was hoping to break the sound barrier.

[Scott]

16hrs and counting...here is the website where you can watch it live tomorrow about 2pm UK time (check that yourself...I always get time zones mixed up).

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

[Scott]

3hrs and counting to launch

[vintly]

Wow! Nice one, I'm gonna watch that in awe.

[Ian]

Launch back to 14:30 GMT now.

[Ian]

Now it's back to 15:30 GMT. Will he or won't he go?

[Ian]

Now it's 17:30 GMT earliest launch.

[Ian]

Mission resumes, laying the balloon out.

[Ian]

Launch aborted due to wind, they'll try again tomorrow but they're not too optimistic.