Felix Baumgartner

[helolumpy]

So, I'm watching this on and off for about 2 hours and have the DVR recording it.
My freakin' cable TV goes out just as he's standing on the platform to jump. The picture freezes for about 30 seconds, then I get about 4 seconds of free fall then nothing.

I can't believe my cable went out at the exact moment he stepped off! Thank God for Youtube!!

 

[jmcquate]

I'm reading 1.24 Mach on the Red Bull site. Don't know if that's official, or just an extrapolation of "measured speed" (700+ something) vs. Mach at sea level, or what the real IMN might be at altitude, given the air density. Crap...I shoulda been an aero major...

I read an un-official speed of 833 mph. That's well over the number STP at sea level. WOW!!!!!

 

[707guy]

So, I'm watching this on and off for about 2 hours and have the DVR recording it.
My freakin' cable TV goes out just as he's standing on the platform to jump. The picture freezes for about 30 seconds, then I get about 4 seconds of free fall then nothing.

I can't believe my cable went out at the exact moment he stepped off! Thank God for Youtube!!

That sucks...if there was nothing important going on it would have been fine...

 

[KBayDog]

I read an un-official speed of 833 mph. That's well over the number STP at sea level. WOW!!!!!

I think "Nucking Futs" is the term you're looking for.

Seriously - un-friggin' believable event, and Holy Cajones! It's refreshing to see that, even though NASA's been completely neutered, there are men and women still willing still willing to expand our envelope. Whether there's a scientific motive, a profit motive, or a "What the Hell, Let's Just Try It" motive, the bottom line is that this sort of thing expands our collective knowledges base and opens doors for all sorts of follow-on research.

Ultimately, though, it's simply inspiring as hell. This old man had a big smile on his face watching this incredible feat today - I can only imagine what the kids who saw it must have felt. These events - regardless of nationality, corporate sponsorship, etc. - are far more likely to stimulate an interest in science, exploration, and just plain "guts" than paying the Soviets to fly us to the US ISS ever will.

Keep bringing it!

 

[MasterBates]

Lets face it, NASA values the diversity part of it's mission more than the exploration part. And that is sad.

Private ventures are the future for space.

 

[scoober78]

I think "Nucking Futs" is the term you're looking for.

Seriously - un-friggin' believable event, and Holy Cajones! It's refreshing to see that, even though NASA's been completely neutered, there are men and women still willing still willing to expand our envelope. Whether there's a scientific motive, a profit motive, or a "What the Hell, Let's Just Try It" motive, the bottom line is that this sort of thing expands our collective knowledges base and opens doors for all sorts of follow-on research.

Ultimately, though, it's simply inspiring as hell. This old man had a big smile on his face watching this incredible feat today - I can only imagine what the kids who saw it must have felt. These events - regardless of nationality, corporate sponsorship, etc. - are far more likely to stimulate an interest in science, exploration, and just plain "guts" than paying the Soviets to fly us to the US ISS ever will.

Keep bringing it!

I think the big takeaway is that Twitter, and Facebook and Airwarriors is blowing up with the people who watched, were in awe, motivated, excited or otherwise by this. In a time where the government has given up on exploration and adventure, it's good to know the human spirit still hasn't. Where there's hope and a will, there's a way. We'll find a way off the planet again...

 

[scoober78]

Jinx Bates...

 

[Recovering LSO]

Lets face it, NASA values the diversity part of it's mission more than the exploration part. And that is sad.

?

Private ventures are the future for space.

Agreed.

 

[Flash]

Lets face it, NASA values the diversity part of it's mission more than the exploration part. And that is sad.......Private ventures are the future for space.

While a great accomplishment and very exciting fifty years to get 20,000 feet higher isn't a ground-breaking achievement. Putting a car-sized exploration vehicle on a planet 156 million miles away, that literally is covering new ground. If diversity includes our new robot overlords then I guess Curiosity counts.

 

[scoober78]

While a great accomplishment and very exciting fifty years to get 20,000 feet higher isn't a ground-breaking achievement. Putting a car-sized exploration vehicle on a planet 156 million miles away, that literally is covering new ground. If diversity includes our new robot overlords then I guess Curiosity counts.

Doing it with private non-governmental funding is.

 

[KBayDog]

While a great accomplishment and very exciting fifty years to get 20,000 feet higher isn't a ground-breaking achievement.

I'll take fifty years to get 20,000 feet higher in this record over the sad fact that we lost the ability to get to the moon 40 years ago...and now cannot get Americans into space at all without paying a pretty penny to the Soviets...any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

 

[Flash]

Doing it with private non-governmental funding is.

Not really, though at least time they suceeded......

 

[scoober78]

Not really, though at least time they suceeded......

Well no $hit...leave it to some broskis from Jersey...Thanks for the info.

I think the point still stands though...I could cobble together a diving bell with some friends and a welding shop and then say that I'm going to dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench...but that don't make it so. Success is the bar...especially when the other alternative is death.

 

[PropAddict]

I could cobble together a diving bell with some friends and a welding shop and then say that I'm going to dive to the bottom of the Marianas Trench...but that don't make it so. Success is the bar...especially when the other alternative is death.

A bit late on that one, too. James Cameron smoked you.

 

[Catmando]

An impressive feat? Yes, perhaps. But mostly made by the technology today to record it.

Elsewhere there is a link to Chuck Yeager's feat of breaking the sound barrier, which many at the time said could not be done. And was not recorded live.

As a young kid there was a TV show I loved. It showed all the great experiments that men volunteered for, in preparation for the space program. I forget its name. But it started out with rocket sled rides, like this....