Education Redbull Stratos

This is kicking off in just under 3 hours from now.

Freefall from 36.57 Kilometres (120,000 feet) in an attempt to break the sound barrier in a new spacesuit. Felix Baumgartner is attempting to break the record set by Joe Kittinger back in 1960, who did a freefall jump from 102,000 feet.

Estimated freefall time for Baumgartner is 5 minutes and 35 seconds, roughly.

There will be 2 things bringing him back to earth... gravity, and his massive brass balls.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

There will be a live stream, so I'd say that it will be worth the watch folks

 

Awesome!! I shall be tuning in for that!

Anyone unfamiliar with Joe Kittingers jump, its at the end of this compilation (6.15):



Although the other jumps in the video are pretty mental and the soundtrack is Cheesecake

 

Less than an hour to go! Fecking hell I hope this all goes according to plan

 

why do i have to go work ><

 

Dammit weather hold!

 

Still, hopefully it's only an hour or so, not another 24 hours.

 

The feed on the linked page doesn't seem to be working too well. Try this one if you're getting issues:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/vkJ5ItzEq3M?autoplay=1&wmode=transparent

 

Damn, delayed until this evening at the earliest

 

Well they are rolling out the balloon, i guess that's a good sign

 

How does this work then, I didn't think Terminal Velocity for a person shaped/weight object was as high as the sound barrier?

Do they add extra mass or something?

 

Terminal velocity is simply a balance between aerodynamic drag and gravity. At 120k feet you don't have enough air pressure to keep a falling object below 690mph.

 

The air is much thinner the higher you go, so terminal velocity is much higher also. As he falls, the air will become much thicker so he will gradually slow down to 'normal' terminal velocity. Not before he goes supersonic however in principle...

 

Less air resistance therefore terminal velocity is higher

Edit: double nija'd

 

Can't wait to see this happen, not that it is something I would ever want to do.

He is jumping from so high that air pressure is a fraction of what it is at ground level, so his terminal velocity will be a lot higher due to the air resistance being much smaller
He could be using extra mass as well, but I havn't seen anything about it.

EDIT: Triple Ninja'd

 

Looks like it won't be happening today

 

Yup it is canceled I was really looking forward to this

 

I think I had a brain fart,

My Dad mentioned the air being thinner higher up during dinner when I mentioned the jump, realised what a moron I was,

 

Attention! There seems to be some movement.

 

Aye - looks like he's off very soon!

Good luck to them - few hours of riveting watching incoming me thinks!

 

He's up!