Stratos Mission - ~120k-foot freefall from the edge of space!

Live broadcast mission of Felix Baumgartner who is going to be in freefall from near the edge of space! Watch now! It's imminent!

Can try this link instead.

My heart definitely jumped when he stepped off the capsule!

That was amazing.

From the announcer before, it didn't sound like he was supposed to tumble nearly that much. That was a bit tense. Afterwards, they didn't seem to make a big deal out of it.

Also, them muting out all the talk about the visor was annoying.

Wonder if there was any kind of delay on the feed in case of catastrophe? I would have assumed not, but they way they seemed to be controlling information, I wonder.

That was pretty damned impressive.

Gotta say, that was pretty awesome.

I really enjoyed it. Stumbled on it on Boing Boing a few minutes before he started his exit checklist. The view from the capsule cameras made my palms sweat.

Yeah, watched this line. It was pretty amazing. Certainly some tense moments as he stepped off for the fall and during the more uncontrolled part of his decent.

where can i watch it? i missed the live

I heard there was a 20 sec delay.

Thanks for the link! I missed the live stream and was having trouble finding the video. That was awesome!

karmajay wrote:

My heart definitely jumped when he stepped off the capsule!

+1 to this.

Suit cam:

karmajay wrote:

My heart definitely jumped when he stepped off the capsule!

That was terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.

Red Bull also has a vid of his other jumping exploits.

I liked how the announcer kept interrupting the live feed to explain how parachutes work.

We watched this with about 8 people of all ages gathered around - reactions ranged from fear when it looked like he was spinning out of control to spontaneous applause and cheers when he landed safely. Everyone felt like it was an event of some importance - no one could really agree on what exactly it was, but we all felt like we had witnessed something amazing.

I think the NYT piece I read said that the risk with the spinning was that if he got into a flat spin that went fast enough, his blood would be force to his extremities. Also that the suit caused typical physical cues that sky divers use subconsciously to orient themselves (more wind on right shoulder) unusable.

Pretty crazy stuff.

There's some awesome new footage of the jump.

MannishBoy wrote:

I think the NYT piece I read said that the risk with the spinning was that if he got into a flat spin that went fast enough, his blood would be force to his extremities. Also that the suit caused typical physical cues that sky divers use subconsciously to orient themselves (more wind on right shoulder) unusable.

Pretty crazy stuff.

It happened to Kittinger on his first jump. Where he ended up spinning at 120 rpms. Supposedly, that put his extremities at 22 Gs. Needless to say he passed out. Then when his chute backup system opened at a preset safety distance, it wrapped around his neck and just about choked him to death as he was falling to ground unconscious.

So yeah, the team knew about dangers of spinning.

How'd they fit his balls in the capsule?

It is things like this that make me wonder how anyone can not be amazed by both the power of science and human ingenuity.

MannishBoy wrote:

A FAQ type piece.

"key questions answered"

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

How'd they fit his balls in the capsule?

It does not answer this. FAIL.

I'm not taking away from Baumgarnter's accomplishment, but he's standing on the shoulders of a giant and most people don't know it.

Joesph Kittinger did the first high altitude balloon jumps in the late 50's and early 60's as part of Project Excelsior. He was key to testing both the parachutes, and also the protective gear for the Air Force's X project, and NASA's Project Mercury. Imagine doing that jump, only without 50 years of experience in the materials and methods behind you.

http://www.centennialofflight.gov/es...
http://www.centennialofflight.gov/es...

That's the record Baumgartner broke.

I'm sure you know it, momgamer, but it bears repeating. Kittinger was his "special advisor" and a communications person during the jump.

I do. But I've heard five people today talk about how it had never been done before, and I thought the rest of the facts might be helpful.

I'm also baised, Kittinger has been one of my heroes for a long time.

Yeah. That image of him jumping out, knowing his hand is like a blown up latex glove, exposed to upper atmosphere, but he doesn't complain, or even say a word, is one of my favourite of all times.

Not to mention that after all that, he does 3 tours of duty in Vietnam, gets shot down and tortured as a PoW.

Then comes back and continues life like nothing happened.

I'm sure that when that man walks, a clinking sound is heard.

Bonus_Eruptus wrote:

How'd they fit his balls in the capsule?