Holy crap. I’ve never seen anything like it. He jumped out of a space capsule, went into free fall, broke the sound barrier, and landed on his feet. What the–?!
The New York Times has a good article on the jump:
A helium-filled balloon, the largest ever used for a manned flight, lifted the capsule into the air.
Mr. Baumgartner took 2 hours 21 minutes to reach the height, lifting off in an enormous helium balloon that smoothly carried him through the critical first 4,000 feet — called the Dead Zone because it would be impossible to parachute to safety.
From the distance above the New Mexico desert — he hoped to make the highest jump in history and become the first sky diver to break the speed of sound. Before than attempt, Mr. Baumgartner went through a checklist with help from Joe Kittinger, 84, the retired Air Force colonel who in 1960 jumped from 102,800 feet, setting records that remained more than half a century later — and that Mr. Baumgartner was hoping to break.
“Be sure to stay hydrated, Felix,” Mr. Kittinger said earlier as the capsule rose above 22,000 feet. “You’re doing great on that altitude.”
During the second hour of ascent, Mr. Baumgartner complained to Mr. Kittinger that the heating system in his visor was not working properly, and the visor was fogging up. At that point viewers following the live feed of the mission stopped hearing the men’s conversation. The Red Bull Stratos team said that Mr. Kittinger had decided to “enable private conversation.”
The mission requires the largest balloon ever used for a manned flight. Made of 40 acres of ultrathin plastic, it has been described as an inflated dry-cleaning bag that would fill the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Gizmodo live-blogged it — it’s worth checking out to see the process:
We are covering the event live.
The first launch was aborted at the very last minute last Tuesday because of a surge in strong winds, faster than 10 knots (11.5mph). The Stratos team remain optimistic about today’s weather.
Here’s the mission video:
Here’s the aborted attempt from five days ago:
The other videos aren’t loading because, oh I don’t know, something like 7 million people are currently trying to watch the same damn videos all at once.
Wow. What an amazing feat. I feel pretty damn lazy for not having even gotten off the damn couch yet today.
There’s a live press conference going on soon, streaming at the Red Bull Stratos website.
[cross-posted at ABLC]
Corner Stone
Bruce Boxleitner?
Brad
I had to wiki baumgartner while watching. He has several first jumps, but he also holds the record for the lowest jump at just over 95 feet off the hand of the Christ statue in Rio. Highest and lowest, not bad.
Elizabelle
Incredible.
Well done.
jayboat
Brass balls, baby. Ever wanna stick your hand out the airplane window at 700mph? 8-]]]
Jerzy Russian
@jayboat:
I tried that once, but for some reason, you cannot open the windows on most commercial jetliners.
raven
@Jerzy Russian: Mitt likey.
PsiFighter37
@jayboat: Mitt Romney might.
(yes, I know it turned out to be a joke, but it was a fun meme while it lasted)
That said, props to this dude. I’ve done a normal skydive before, and while it’s exhilarating, I don’t think I could come anywhere close to freefalling more than 4 times as long at more than 3 times the speed of a regular skydive. Well done, Mr. Baumgartner. I drink to you!
PF37 +4 really high-ABV beers
WereBear
I guess this is how you can tell the pros from the amateurs.
Congrats, Felix!
Flying Squirrel Girl
@PsiFighter37: I was just asking myself whether it was late enough to switch from ginger ale to something with a bit more punch on this rainy afternoon. Why yes, yes it is.
Danack
“@seldo Watching live video on my phone of a man riding a balloon into space, in case you were wondering what century it was.”
Pretty cool that Joe Kittinger was the voice of mission control for this jump.
Danack
btw the site is really slow to respond when posting comments.
Smiling Mortician
Might want to fix his name in the post title.
Jerzy Russian
Also too: although he was pretty fucking high up there, I am not sure I would call that “space”. Still, it is an amazing achievement, and there is a reason that the previous record stood for ~50 years.
Finally, I did not realize how goddamn large that balloon was until I watched that linked video. Imagine having that thing fall down on your neighborhood.
hildebrand
OT – Just finished doing a bit of shopping at the Obama campaign store. Purchased a number of items for myself (needed a bit more Obama swag), and a number of ‘Made in America’ mugs for my right-wing family members. The mugs will be sent directly to their homes with a jaunty little note from me wishing them a happy election day.
General Stuck
Outer space is not that far away, here in the land of Roswell.
MikeJ
@Danack: Don’t worry, the site only slows down once every four years.
PsiFighter37
@Flying Squirrel Girl: I heartily agree. It is perfect fall weather in NYC today (60 degrees, no wind, and a helluva lotta sunshine), so I got started at lunchtime today. I have a dinner party tonight, so all in all, going to be a long day for me.
A perfect day for skydiving too, I’m sure :)
@hildebrand: That’s hella cheeky. Has anyone ever looked at where GOP swag is made? My guess is they probably outsource their stuff to China, which would make for a very good comparison. If you ever look at Democratic swag (even the cheap-ass posters handed out at rallies), 2 things stand out:
1) It is ALWAYS made in the U.S.
2) It is ALWAYS made by a unionized shop
Practice what you preach. Even if it costs a little bit more, it’s the right thing to do.
Corner Stone
@Jerzy Russian:
Because no one really gives a shit about it?
It’s not like the MLB Triple Crown, where some competitor is giving it a go every year.
J.D. Rhoades
I was getting a little worried about Baumgartner right before the jump. He seemed slow to respond to requests from the ground and I was worried his oxygen might be out of whack. But when he stepped off that little ledge into free-fall…damn. That was something.
BGinCHI
This is the opposite of Mitt’s tax plan.
In the latter we all jump out of the capsule and then Mitt tells us how we are going to slow down before crashing into the earth.
Everyone notices that he already has a pressure suit and parachute on.
low-tech cyclist
Holy cow, that’s an impressive feat!
First of all, just getting the balloon with nontrivial cargo up to 127,000 feet is a hell of an achievement. What makes a helium balloon work, of course, is that near sea level, the helium in the balloon is way lighter than the nitrogen and oxygen molecules it is displacing, and the difference is easily enough to make up for the weight of the passengers, any additional cargo, and the basket that carries them.
As you go up, the atmosphere becomes thinner, which means there are fewer oxygen and nitrogen molecules in any cubic foot of air to displace the helium balloon and continue to force it up. I’m surprised that there’s enough atmosphere at 127,000 feet to keep pushing the balloon up, payload or no payload.
But that does bring me to a nitpick: if there’s enough atmosphere at a given altitude to keep pushing that balloon up, then you’re in the atmosphere. And if you’re in the atmosphere, you’re not in space. (I’d say that by definition, you can’t get to outer space in a balloon.) I don’t think it denigrates Baumgartner’s feat in the least to point that out.
Brachiator
It’s a stunt, not a mission. A hell of a stunt, yes, but still.
I guess soon we will have touristy bungee space jumping.
I expect sales for Red Bull to skyrocket.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Jerzy Russian: Yeah, he jumped from the stratosphere, and between that and “space” is still the mesophere, thermosphere, and the exosphere.
I’m not sure where the blogosphere falls in there. I think there’s a bingosphere but only if you land in Florida.
zombie rotten mcdonald
How do you step off a perfectly good balloon at 127,000 feet?
geg6
I’ll get out of the thread because I bitch about people who stick around in threads that they hate, but I don’t get why I should be impressed by this. Unless I’m meant to be impressed by this guy’s stupidity and death wish, that is.
This is the new century version of Evel Kneivel or the idiots who used to go over Niagra Falls in barrels.
Jerzy Russian
@low-tech cyclist:
My point exactly.
@Corner Stone:
Yes, the population interested in this record is small. Still, a lot happened in the 1960s and 1970s with the space race, and someone would have broken Kittinger’s 1960 record had it been easy.
zombie rotten mcdonald
@low-tech cyclist:
(I’d say that by definition, you can’t get to outer space in a balloon.)
Jules Verne is going to be PISSED.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Brachiator: CNN had an astronaut on while I was watching who said “This isn’t a stunt, it’s a mission”
Shrug.
You say tomato, I guess.
CNN also cut away just before he actually jumped. Amazing. Luckily I also had it online and then found another channel that was showing it.
the Conster
@Bill E Pilgrim:
“We’ll have to leave it there.”
Heckuva job Fox Lite.
Bill E Pilgrim
@low-tech cyclist: Some places are reporting it as “near-space” to get around that, but at 22,000 something feet and space being around 60,000, not really too near. Pretty impressive nonetheless of course.
Corner Stone
@Jerzy Russian: Before Bumbleaughtner, how many people tried to best the record?
Bill E Pilgrim
@the Conster: One of them mentioned something about being worried about repeating the FOX News car chase suicide thing earlier. Just to confirm who they take their cues from now.
gelfling545
@hildebrand: You just reminded me that I have to order one as a birthday gift for a Republican friend. I’m sure he’ll love it.(snort.)
Bill E Pilgrim
@General Stuck: Hah. Nicely done.
Yutsano
Granted this was just one huge commercial for Red Bull. But there may indeed be things learned from this stunt we haven’t grokked yet, like possible solutions to Mars atmospherics.
gene108
Kittenger still has the longest duration in free fall from his 1960 jump at 4:36. Baumgartner pulled his parachute after 4:18.
With all that’s changed in technology over the last 52 years, it looks Col. Kittenger still gets to keep one of his records for some more time.
Jerzy Russian
@Corner Stone:
Michel Fournier tried at least three times. Yevgeni Nikolayevich Andreyev also came close in 1962. Then there is Space Jump, which has not gotten off the ground, as far as I can tell. There is Cherly Stearns and her StratoQuest, which again has not gotten very far, presumably due to a lack of funding combined with the fact that it is damn hard technically.
The Sailor
@zombie rotten mcdonald:
Apparently with a bunny hop.
Applejinx
WITH RED BULL AMIRITE?
Sorry, I’m a little wary of corporate propaganda trying to establish how wonderful the corporate achievements of our wonderful corporate world are. I watched their little video, and it was pretty creepy how slick all of it was.
Occasional Reader
Anybody else start to get nervous when he started spinning like a top a couple minutes into the jump? Mission control looked pretty ashen-faced until he stabilized. It felt for a minute there like they might have been about to cut the feed.
Berliner2
It’s Baumgartner, not Baumbartner. Not that anyone cares in the Greatest Country on EarthTM, but over here in THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH, which is Switzerland, we care enough about our crazy neighbors in Austria to make sure that their names get spelled right when they hit the big time.
Bill E Pilgrim
CNN: “Well he’s apparently doing pretty well, well enough to hold a press conference, which he’s either doing now or about to do, we don’t know.”
CNN definitely gets an “F” as stratocasters.
I mean how many strings do you have to pull to be in tune enough with a story that you’re already covering in order to know about a press conference by its main subject?
Felanius Kootea
@gene108: His visor was fogging over so he couldn’t see – I would have opened that parachute well before 4:18 if I couldn’t see, records be damned.
I’ve managed one tandem dive, at 13,000 feet. I almost passed out from fear the second I left the safety of the plane, before the adrenaline kicked in. This was amazing to watch!
Genine
I saw the video and thought it was amazing. Corporate stunt or not, I thought it was quite a feat.
As he was pressurizing his suit and opening the door, I thought Felix sounded weird. I thought it was nervousness. (The man was definitely entitled to some!)
MikeJ
Why does it matter if it was a publicity stunt or a mission? Who cares? Red Bull wants you to hear their name, and they gave you an entertaining spectacle. I have no problem with spectacle. It’s much better many other ways companies try to make money.
Lojasmo
@Flying Squirrel Girl:
I’m going on a singletrack run. When I’m done, i am switching from coffee to ale.
Lojasmo-1
Corner Stone
@Bill E Pilgrim: That was awful Bill E.
TaMara (BHF)
@Occasional Reader: It got scarier when he finally came back on the com link and said, I think I passed out there for a minute. At least that’s what I heard. 84 year old Joe didn’t seem fazed by that, I suppose since Felix had righted himself and was in control again. Stayed steady and reassuring when Felix said his visor had fogged.
That’s what you want during death defying feats – a guy on the other end who is as calm and cool as ice.
Sucks to be Miss Kitkas's Comrade Wayne
Now there’s some balloon juice for ya.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Corner Stone: Oh fine.
See I think there are good puns and bad puns, but some people dismiss any pun as bad.
Okay wait. Those were bad, yes. Sorry.
CaseyL
We’re that much closer to the from-orbit skydive Kirk, Sulu and Olsen took in the Star Trek reboot :)
I thought it was amazing. I’ve skydived (skydove?) twice, once from high enough to get 60 seconds of free-fall. Imagining more than 4 minutes of free-fall makes me all tingly.
That’s got to be about the biggest leap of faith anyone does, stepping out of a “perfectly good” airplane, balloon, whatever to plummet Earthward, trusting one’s planning, tech, and own wits – to land safely. And he nailed the landing perfectly.
CNN is just an embarrassment. Hard to believe it’s fallen so far from where it started.
AnnaN
And man, did he stick that landing.
Occasional Reader
@TaMara (BHF): Cool as ice indeed. But imagine the massive, ah …force of will… it took for Colonel Joe to do similar 50 years ago, I assume with much less technology assisting him. No wonder he was unfazed.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@jayboat:
Brass balls, baby.
I dunno – most of the drop wouldn’t have required any courage at all.
That first bunny hop out of the capsule, however,…
Yutsano
@CaseyL: Can we haz Ted Turner back plz??
Phoenician in a time of Romans
@Genine:
As he was pressurizing his suit and opening the door, I thought Felix sounded weird. I thought it was nervousness. (The man was definitely entitled to some!)
Well, there are reports he went for a “private conversation” and earlier he had fled the US rather than deal with the claustrophobia. I suspect he was going well beyond the fear levels that anyone should cope with.
Imagine being confined in a tiny pressure suit and capsule for more than two hours just about unable to move with nothing to do but think about what was coming…
Corner Stone
@Phoenician in a time of Romans:
I remember my manhood trials well. Being forced to sit in a capsule as it rose above 100K feet. The Spirit Warrior visited me then…
But that is another story.
sharl
In a 2004 article, Ted Turner himself discussed the background on how he lost control of CNN, and how it began its journey to the pathetic thing it is today.
Bad CNN coverage aside, I look forward to seeing video of this spectacle, once I get my hands on an intertoobz connection with decent speed.
polyorchnid octopunch
As I understand it, there were two main goals for this whole thing. One is for a whole bunch of publicity for Red Bull. The other was testing some new spacesuit design concepts, with an eye to enabling very high altitude bailouts of space ship crews, including being able to train them in how to do it properly.
rikyrah
This mofo is crazy
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
Fair point, especially if the guy was expertly monitored. We might learn something about what his body went through as he made his dive.
On the other hand, we will probably learn much more about Mars atmospherics from the craft that is actually on Mars.
Yutsano
@Brachiator: One of the largest problems for landing on Mars is the fact that the Martian atmosphere is just so damn thin. Parachutes just can’t get enough drag to slow down spacecraft enough, which is the reason for the whole skycrane thing. It was an amazing piece of engineering to be sure, but if we can get some insights into how to slow things down with less air it will make future Mars missions more viable.
Mnemosyne
@geg6:
I dunno about the “death wish” part. He seems to have done all of the safety planning that was possible (all skydiving is inherently dangerous) and he did have the assistance and advice of the previous recordholder. When conditions were too dangerous a couple of days ago, he immediately called it off.
I’m not particularly interested or impressed, but some people like those kinds of extreme sports, so if they want to be happy, I’m not gonna poop in their punchbowl.
Nerull
@Bill E Pilgrim:
If you count the thermosphere (or exosphere), the ISS isn’t in space, the space shuttle never went to space, the hubble space telescope isn’t in space, etc.
Space is generally defined as the top of the mesosphere, around 100km.
Matt McIrvin
@low-tech cyclist:
These high-altitude balloons are sort of onion-shaped, and when they first take off they look deflated and saggy. It’s only when the air gets really, really thin that the gas expands enough that the onion inflates to its full size.
They have to be gigantic to provide enough lift to carry anything. This one’s over 100 feet tall.
Scuffletuffle
Wow….just WOW!
Bill D.
That’s one GIANT step for a man. . .
Montysano
It was always billed as a jump from “the edge of space”, not “from space”. My daughter and I watched it live. When the pod door slid open, we gasped. We were on the edge of our seats. It was amazing, and even more so when he slid forward, stood on the ledge, said a few words, and…. jumped.
We live in Rocket City USA. The local space/aero geeks are all aflutter.
valency
It has of course been done before. Mission conroller of the jump was Joseph Kittinger, who in 1960 made a jump from 102,800 feet. But “daredevil jumps from slightly higher distance than when it was originally done in 1960” is a less exciting headline.
Waynski
I watched it live. It was fucking thrilling. Ubel Knievel!
owlbear1
He jumped from 128,100 feet (Record)
He fell for 119,846 ft (Record)
He was in free fall for 4:20 seconds ( Kittinger’s record stands at 4:36)
And reached a top speed of 833.9 mph or Mach 1.24 (Record)
low-tech cyclist
@Brad:
Hey wait a second there – I just bunny-hopped off of a paperback copy of The Stands Mitt Romney Has Consistently Held Over The Past Decade, whose thickness consists entirely of its covers, title page, acknowledgments, etc.
That’s WAY lower a jump than off the Christ statue! (And I nailed the landing, I’m pleased to say.)
(Yes, I know what you mean, but I couldn’t resist.)
Brachiator
@Yutsano:
The whole point of the complicated Curiosity landing was to deal with the specifics of Martian gravity and thinner Martian atmosphere. And it succeeded spectacularly.
Also, part of the thing with the Mars lander was the difficulty of getting a larger, heavier craft safely onto the surface.
Ultimately this guy re-entered thicker Earth atmosphere. And he was a small, lightweight human, not a piece of machinery weighing a thousand pounds or more I don’t see much to be learned from this with respect to landing craft on Mars. I also don’t know the degree to which scientists and engineers were monitoring this guy’s vitals during his dive.
However, maybe this will inspire scientists, engineers, math students and others to come up with new and elegant solutions, or even new and more elegant questions.
dexwood
He needed a big balloon just to lift his balls off the ground.
Shrillhouse
That image of Earth when he stepped out the capsule was just incredible.
Robert Waldmann
Love the dateline “ROSWELL, N.M”. Take that aliens — humans can do extreme stuff in Roswell too.
Tony
He practically became the first human to break the sound barrier, more video footage here bit.ly/T3QCdF