Jump from Edge of Space - Felix Baumgartner.

[DrRockor]

The dude is a badass for doing this but when I heard about it I did think it was going to set a record for worlds highest suicide

 

[Irridium]

How did he manage to fit his massive balls into that suit?

And of course someone made the joke before me.

Anyway, impressive stuff. Also impressed at the apathy I've seen people express towards this. We live in truly extraordinary times for people to consider a dude jumping to Earth from space to be "meh."

 

[Blunderboy]

I must say, Felix Baumgartner seems like a very down to earth guy.

Oh you.


OT - It was amazing. Though the guy is crazy and clearly has huge brass balls. Luckily he apparently has two girlfriends to take care of them. Greedy bugger.

But still well done.
And thanks for giving the world this gif.

 

[teebeeohh]

you know what this guy does when he doesn't break the sound barrier powered only by gravity?
he flies jetpacks.

 

[GenericAmerican]

Impressive, but to me, not as impressive as Kittinger's jump. . .modern day tech is fine, but that man jumped in the 60's, I wouldn't touch an oven made in the 60's, let alone the equipment necessary to do a jump like this.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Well he had one epically long free-fall of over 4 minutes, my skydive last month only had 15 seconds before the parachute came out.

15 seconds?? What altitude did you jump from?

I went from 13,500ft and fell for just under a minute.

Oops, I meant 50 seconds, edited. It was from 15000ft I think.

It's awesome up there isn't it

I've never skydived, always wanted too, but I've stood on the top of Pikes peak at 14,000ft. It is a very awesome thing.

OT: I really wanted to watch that jump live, damn my horrible memory.

 

[Euphbug]

I was watching that live, it was awesome when they finally got going. They had a lot of processes to go through before the job started (and for good reason though).

Either way I don't think I could ever do any form of skydiving so massive thumps up to Felix.

 

[Lunar Templar]

I just facepalm at the fact that they put him on the same page as Armstrong, I mean don't get me wrong, he deserves respect, but not the same respect that the world should have for the people who walked on the moon... 1969 Man walked on the moon, 2012 man jumps from from high....

there's another fact the OP is leveling out, for some reason.

he supposedly hit mach 1 during the free fall, which was the whole point of the jump.

 

[Von Strimmer]

He apparently suffers from claustrophobia as well. Clearly this man is approaching Demi god status.

 

[Guffe]

What's the difference here than normal skydiving except he looks like an alien and the way up took a bit longer than usual?
Not meaning to be a party pooper, and yes it would've been cool n' all but I mean he just jumped from a really high altitude...

Well normal sky dives free fall last for a minute maybe? This guy was free falling for 4+ minutes and reached a top speed of 700 something miles an hour. That's pretty insane

I understand that his freefall was about 4 times longer than a normal skydive, still not the longest freefall when meassuring in time he was freefalling, but is there any risk here that is bigger than in a normal skydive? I understand the lack of oxygen upp there etc (he had the space suit on, duh) but people are talking about this as if he was first man in space or something.
I would've been glad to do it but my main question is if this is more dangerous somehow than a normal skydive or is it just a "really long way down from edge of space skydive"?

 

[felbot]

yay i share the name with someone awesome.

seriously though awesome guy, could never have done that myself.

 

[Patrick Buck]

I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch it, because I thought he was going to explode like a bug on a windscreen because of the pressure, but goddamnit he did it.
That either takes a insane amount of crazies, or balls the size of a rhino, fairplay to him.

And I'm sure we learned lots of sciency stuff from the jump, so good job bro.

 

[F'Angus]

I'm going to be honest, I didn't watch it, because I thought he was going to explode like a bug on a windscreen because of the pressure, but goddamnit he did it.
That either takes a insane amount of crazies, or balls the size of a rhino, fairplay to him.

And I'm sure we learned lots of sciency stuff from the jump, so good job bro.

There was a point when he started spinning and I thought he was screwed and it was all over. Helluva good to pull out of that while falling 800 mph.

That certainly takes some guts.
Glad to see it went off without a hitch.

Now, without further ado . . .

Thank you sir for sharing that gif. haha

 

[DugMachine]

What's the difference here than normal skydiving except he looks like an alien and the way up took a bit longer than usual?
Not meaning to be a party pooper, and yes it would've been cool n' all but I mean he just jumped from a really high altitude...

Well normal sky dives free fall last for a minute maybe? This guy was free falling for 4+ minutes and reached a top speed of 700 something miles an hour. That's pretty insane

I understand that his freefall was about 4 times longer than a normal skydive, still not the longest freefall when meassuring in time he was freefalling, but is there any risk here that is bigger than in a normal skydive? I understand the lack of oxygen upp there etc (he had the space suit on, duh) but people are talking about this as if he was first man in space or something.
I would've been glad to do it but my main question is if this is more dangerous somehow than a normal skydive or is it just a "really long way down from edge of space skydive"?

From where he jumped he was in a virtual vacuum as well as reaching mach 1. If he had started to tumble or he his suit malfunctioned his blood would have boiled and his brain would have probably exploded. There was a lot of risk in this jump haha.

He actually did start to tumble but he was able to regain control

edit: And reaching mach 1 or just speeds higher than say 500? Any sharp turns or tumbles would exert ridiculous G forces on his body

 

[Zack Alklazaris]

This is one of the most epic things I've ever seen. I am a space fanatic. I have seen so many beautiful amazing, sexy things that space has to offer. I thought nothing in space would make me awestruck anymore... until I watched that free fall.

Holy shit... thats all I can keep saying.

 

[sinsfire]

What's the difference here than normal skydiving except he looks like an alien and the way up took a bit longer than usual?
Not meaning to be a party pooper, and yes it would've been cool n' all but I mean he just jumped from a really high altitude...

Well normal sky dives free fall last for a minute maybe? This guy was free falling for 4+ minutes and reached a top speed of 700 something miles an hour. That's pretty insane

I understand that his freefall was about 4 times longer than a normal skydive, still not the longest freefall when meassuring in time he was freefalling, but is there any risk here that is bigger than in a normal skydive? I understand the lack of oxygen upp there etc (he had the space suit on, duh) but people are talking about this as if he was first man in space or something.
I would've been glad to do it but my main question is if this is more dangerous somehow than a normal skydive or is it just a "really long way down from edge of space skydive"?

A few points on your questions. First the longest freefall was only about 19 seconds longer then Felix attained during his historic jump. The longest freefall actually started at an altitutde about 15,000 below Felix's jump spot. The reason the longest freefall took longer is because the individual was just jumping to try to get the longest freefall and held a possition intent on slowing his body as much as possible. The entire point of the Stratos mission was for an individual to break the sound barrier through freefall. With that in mind Felix took a head down "Delta" possition to reach a speed of 832 MPH (this is a preliminary recording and has not yet been verified), therefore he was attempting to move faster thus he was not necessarily aiming for the longest freefall.

As far as the term lack of oxygen, I'm not sure you understand how little atmosphere there is at that height. Felix was actually at the edge of the atmosphere in a homemade space suit(labratory assisted and aided by NASA but not build by NASA). Had there been an issue with suit integrity he most likely would not have noticed before his bodily fluids vaporized (boiled) due to the lack of heat and atmosphere.

There is also the issue that the first 20-30 seconds of his jump occurred in such limited atmophere that he has a reduced control of his movements. Had he begun to spin the gravitational forces could have litterally torn his body apart. If you listen to the video they make mention of a controlled descent, the is key because it means he was able to avoid the horrific fate of an uncontrolled freefall which most likely would have killed him prior to his reaching the lower levels of earth's atmosphere.

It is also relatively impressive that this was privately funded science. There were no government grants involved. Redbull and a number of sponsors helped this thing occur. Otherwise the technological gains which happened here may never have been realized. One last thing. Check out the redbull stratos website to see how large the balloon actually was when inflated. It is the largest baloon ever made and at release it stands taller then the Statue of Liberty.

 

[Guffe]

I understand that his freefall was about 4 times longer than a normal skydive, still not the longest freefall when meassuring in time he was freefalling, but is there any risk here that is bigger than in a normal skydive? I understand the lack of oxygen upp there etc (he had the space suit on, duh) but people are talking about this as if he was first man in space or something.
I would've been glad to do it but my main question is if this is more dangerous somehow than a normal skydive or is it just a "really long way down from edge of space skydive"?

The longest freefall actually started at an altitutde about 15,000 below Felix's jump spot. The reason the longest freefall took longer is because the individual was just jumping to try to get the longest freefall and held a possition intent on slowing his body as much as possible. The entire point of the Stratos mission was for an individual to break the sound barrier through freefall.

This I knew

As far as the term lack of oxygen, I'm not sure you understand how little atmosphere there is at that height. Felix was actually at the edge of the atmosphere in a homemade space suit(labratory assisted and aided by NASA but not build by NASA). Had there been an issue with suit integrity he most likely would not have noticed before his bodily fluids vaporized (boiled) due to the lack of heat and atmosphere.

I guess "lack of oxygen" was a bit... well strange to use, but yes I do understand that at the egde of space breathing would be pretty difficult. I've been in school
That the suit was "homemade" I had no idea.

There is also the issue that the first 20-30 seconds of his jump occurred in such limited atmophere that he has a reduced control of his movements. Had he begun to spin the gravitational forces could have litterally torn his body apart.

Well this was something I read about yesterday and didn't know about as he jumped.
Didn't he also lose controll for a moment but was able to manually stabilize it, I think he said in an interview that if he'd used the stabilizer controller thiny then gettig to mach1 would've been impossible?

It is also relatively impressive that this was privately funded science.
how large the balloon actually was when inflated. It is the largest baloon ever made and at release it stands taller then the Statue of Liberty.

As said earler, had no idea it was privately funded and are we talking here also privately made biggest balloon or like ever in human history?

 

[Guffe]

I understand that his freefall was about 4 times longer than a normal skydive, still not the longest freefall when meassuring in time he was freefalling, but is there any risk here that is bigger than in a normal skydive? I understand the lack of oxygen upp there etc (he had the space suit on, duh) but people are talking about this as if he was first man in space or something.
I would've been glad to do it but my main question is if this is more dangerous somehow than a normal skydive or is it just a "really long way down from edge of space skydive"?

The longest freefall actually started at an altitutde about 15,000 below Felix's jump spot. The reason the longest freefall took longer is because the individual was just jumping to try to get the longest freefall and held a possition intent on slowing his body as much as possible. The entire point of the Stratos mission was for an individual to break the sound barrier through freefall.

This I knew

As far as the term lack of oxygen, I'm not sure you understand how little atmosphere there is at that height. Felix was actually at the edge of the atmosphere in a homemade space suit(labratory assisted and aided by NASA but not build by NASA). Had there been an issue with suit integrity he most likely would not have noticed before his bodily fluids vaporized (boiled) due to the lack of heat and atmosphere.

I guess "lack of oxygen" was a bit... well strange to use, but yes I do understand that at the egde of space breathing would be pretty difficult. I've been in school
That the suit was "homemade" I had no idea.

There is also the issue that the first 20-30 seconds of his jump occurred in such limited atmophere that he has a reduced control of his movements. Had he begun to spin the gravitational forces could have litterally torn his body apart.

Well this was something I read about yesterday and didn't know about as he jumped.
Didn't he also lose controll for a moment but was able to manually stabilize it, I think he said in an interview that if he'd used the stabilizer controller thiny then gettig to mach1 would've been impossible?

It is also relatively impressive that this was privately funded science.
how large the balloon actually was when inflated. It is the largest baloon ever made and at release it stands taller then the Statue of Liberty.

As said earler, had no idea it was privately funded and are we talking here also privately made biggest balloon or like ever in human history?