Daredevil Pulls Off Amazing 13-Mile High Jump From Edges of Space
- Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:13pm by
Benny Johnson
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It’s good to know that in the absence of a NASA budget, American ingenuity remains strong and our sites set high. Real high. Space Race high. In an era of private sector space exploration, daredevil Felix Baumgartner is setting new heights, literally. Twenty-three high to be exact. The jump, that has not taken place yet (and which we’ve covered in the past), would bring Baumgartner to the brink of stratospheric extremes never experienced by mankind. But the daredevil did take a milestone step towards his earth-shattering goal this past Thursday by plunging 13 miles in the custom suit made for the epic jump.
In a video released this week, Baumgartner and his Red Bull sponsor team take a plunge from 71,587 feet, approximately two-thirds of the way to a new world record. The launch was made from Roswell, NM and was a “complete success” according to the engineering support crew.
The test flight was significant in its crossing of the stratospheric Armstrong Line, where the atmospheric pressure tests the capacity of the custom made self-described “Space suit of the future.” A great suit indeed. The daredevil reached a speed of 365 mph and withstood air temperatures of -70 F degrees, enough to instantly crystallize all liquid in the astronaut’s body if exposed. The suit functioned perfectly for three minutes and 43 seconds before Baumgartner opened his parachute at 7,890 feet and floated a soft landing.
The mechanism making the dream a reality is a large helium balloon attached to a custom closed capsule that opens onto a jump platform.
The jump did not reach the level of ‘space plunge’ where the jumper is almost jumping in Zero G and using inertia to be carried back to earth, but the 23 mile planned jump would smash all space jump records.
“I like the challenge,” Baumgartner said. “I have a passion for aviation, and I love working on things that start from scratch,” he explained. The planned leap will theoretically make Baumgartner the first space diver to break the sound barrier, with projected speeds of 760 miles per hour. Will the Baumgartner simply disintegrate in air? The Blaze will keep a close watch. The jump is planned for this Summer.
Take a look at Thursday’s leap below:
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Comments (44)
Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 12:21pmWhat a great triumph for NASA!
What are you talking about, NASA didn’t do it? Who did it?
Red Bull? What do they do?
They sell caffeinated energy drinks? What are they doing designing space suits?
Well Hell! Let’s get some more engineers caffeinated up and see what they do next!
Screw NASA.
Report Post »RRFlyer
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 9:56amIt might be an interesting story, but I sort of got hung up at the line “The jump, that has not taken place yet (and which we’ve covered in the past).” Sounds like a nice bit of time jumping.
Report Post »rgham52
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 9:33amThe reason astronauts experience “zero g” is that they are traveling at 17500 mph in a curved (around the earth) path. Centifugal force (pulling them away from the earth) and the earth’s gravity (pulling them toward the earth) are in balance, thus they float. The way they come back to earth is to fire retro rockets to slow them down, which reduces the centrifugal force tipping the balance toward gravity.
Report Post »AB5r
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 10:56amBut if you get far enough away from earth you do eventually escape the grip of gravity and you are in zero g until you approach another planet close enough to get in the gravity field of that planet. You describe someone orbiting the earth which is not exactly what someone traveling to the moon or other planets is doing. How far up would this guy have to go where he would drift out into space instead of falling back down? The article mentions “inertia” not gravity as helping him in the beginning of his descent until gravity takes over.
Report Post »BetterInformed
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 12:10pmNot always true. Inertia has nothing to do with weightlessness during the Apollo escape trajectory or the transearth trajectory. weightlessness occurs because the only gravitational pull is between the capsule and astronauts. Of course that attraction is insignificant.
Report Post »Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 12:24pmAnd then there’s when the bulkhead suddenly leaps out to smack you in the face because someone fired a maneuvering thruster. The ship changed momentum. You didn’t. =)
Report Post »rgham52
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 6:36pmUhh, can you guess why the moon orbits the earth??
Report Post »AB5r
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 9:05amOn his final jump he may just float out into space? Inertia brings him down before gravity takes over?
Report Post »THXll38
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 8:03amBetween all the self-claimed geniuses, the sound critics, and the haters, yall must have one crappy life. This is bad ass! This also opens many doors to the future of space travel, eventually proving that space travel and exploration can be done by the free market — as it should. Government should have nothing to do with space travel, unless it can be justified it in the Constitution. That said, it may be a stretch, but the only constitutional way to spend federal dollars on space would be through weapon systems like Star Wars — and that is even a stretch.
Report Post »SilentReader
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 10:31pmDaredevil is right!
Report Post »repup
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 7:31pmObama could do this without gas or a parachute, just put him under the baloon and have him start talking, and when he gets high enough to jump he’ll have the media breaking his fall all the way down
Report Post »carl_in_ohio
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:57pmI’m sorry, but I’m left with the “so what?” factor not answered.
Report Post »how does this advance any knowledge? He jumped, he landed. Ok.
lukerw
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:11pmWhat is going through your head… if you wake up one morning and say… I just have to make a 13 Mile High Jump… no matter the Cost?
Report Post »SpeckledPup
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:56pmyeah nice, kid.
Now read up on early 1940s American ‘public hero’, Arthur H Starnes, trailblazer parachutist daredevil. ~~~~ HE was First.
Report Post »TheBurningTruth
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:53pmToo bad the author was totally ignorant of physics:
“The jump did not reach the level of ‘space plunge’ where the jumper is almost jumping in Zero G and using inertia to be carried back to earth, but the 23 mile planned jump would smash all space jump records.”
“Zero G” is a huge misnomer as gravity permeates everything. Just look at the math and you will find that although it drops off with the square of the distance, it NEVER goes to ZERO! In fact, the only reason Baumgartner accelerated at all was due to 1G of gravity. His “inertia” relative to earth was essentially zero, so without gravity he would have just sat there at 71k going nowhere! The author got it exactly backward. But then most “journalists” are scientifically ignorant with pre-Newton knowledge of someone in the 15th century.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:20pmSo… you are Newton (spinning theory) guy… not Einstein (curved space theory)?
Report Post »melancthon
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 8:43pmActually, self-described genius, at 13 miles you’re not at “1 G” because it‘s only 1 G at the earth’s surface. Using your own post (or my own high school physics knowledge), since the distance is increasing, the force of gravity must surely decrease!
Report Post »Rightwingincollege
Posted on March 17, 2012 at 12:22pm@TheBurningTruth
What are you on about? There is a difference between “Zero G” and 0 m/s^2 (accel due to gravity). You are correct in saying that nowhere in the universe will there be exactly zero gravity, as there are objects like supermassive black holes that distort gravity for enormous distances. “Zero G” is our earthly term for gravitational acceleration on a mass that is a fraction of what is found on the surface of earth.
As an engineering student in college, I understand your sentiment that gravity permeates everything, in some cases, we are talking negligible amounts. In the dead of space, do you think being acted on a by an acceleration of some 0.0000000463 m/s^2 will account for anything in the amount of time appreciated by us as humans? Doubtful.
The sentiment in this article is that at this 13 mile, and even more so in his next 23 mile jump, the forces caused by earth will be so greatly diminished, his inertia (force of him against gravity causing him to gain altitude, via the balloon) will be significant amount compared to the force of gravity, meaning it will take a few seconds for him to stop accelerating away from the planet before he starts his descent. With each foot he gets closer to the surface, his acceleration will increase as will his speed.
You could claim the author has little to no current physics knowledge, but to claim incompetence is a little drastic. As is evidenced by your post, you are no NASA lead either.
Report Post »Matrix22
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:50pmWhat amazes me is that he got that high with nothing but helium! Obviously it won’t go into space completely, but this is sure a lot cheaper than building a rocket to get that high.
Report Post »Lemming
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:23pmThis has been done before only higher up!
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8RRkMsHOMU
tmplarnite
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:23pmWOW….grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat fete…now that takes guts…..onward to the “big one” 750+ mph…going to be spooooooooooooky ride…..to all the idiots that thought this was yawn…give up the ghost …you don‘t know it but you’re already dead!
Report Post »BobtheMoron
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:16pmAmerican entrepreneurism will always out preform anything the government can do. Had there been any money in it and the government had stayed out of it people would be living on the moon now.
Report Post »Marine25
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 9:17pmFelix is Austrian, not American. His team consists mostly of German, French and Austrian engineers.
Report Post »disenlightened
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:01pmI once jumped off the roof of my neighbor’s garage. Longest two seconds of my young life.
Report Post »Gary_K
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:39pmI don’t like videos where the music is louder than the narrative.
Report Post »AnaChris
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:39pmmmm the number of comments prove how interesting this is………yawn….mm….what‘s goin’ on?
Report Post »Weiners Wiener
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 4:05pmNo, the number comments as of the time of your post shows that the article was just posted and hardly anyone has seen it yet. Second, if you find it so boring but still take the time to read the article and post your opinions, that tells the rest of us your life must be th ebiggest bore of all. Congrats to you.
Report Post »TexBork
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:18pmWanna really impress me? Dive from the Moon. Hey, it’s harder than it sounds.
Report Post »Ming The Merciless
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:50pm..and the jump….?? Didn’t get it on video?? Where’s the jump video? All this buildup and no jump footage?!?
Video was a waste of time.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:36pmI was disappointed as well.
Report Post »Dave.the.Blaze
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:49pmIt would be amazing to be that high up and see the curvature of the Earth! And then to jump? I once jumped from a Cessna at 9000 ft and was scared.
Report Post »Onowicit
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:39pmsponsored by red bull the blasphemers.
Report Post »Dave.the.Blaze
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:50pmHow’s that? Red Bull promotes what?
Report Post »SHOOTnCRASH
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 3:40pm@Dave.the.Blaze I think he’s referring to this:
Report Post »http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/14/red-bull-jesus-advertisement_n_1345200.html
Its companies like red bull that are stepping up while NASA is down, I applaud them.
db321
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:06pmRed Bull is trying to get closer to their God – They are going the wrong way – they need to go down!
Red Bull is a Satan follower.
Report Post »912er
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:36pmIf Barak does this… I will vote for him… three times….
NOT!
Report Post »db321
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 5:07pmObama – the one that can part the seas – should try it 10 miles higher – do it big Obama – come on!
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:34pmNothing good on LiberalTV, again…
Report Post »nappy
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:31pmYou’ll poke your eye out!
Report Post »deeberj
Posted on March 16, 2012 at 2:30pmWow. I am afraid of heights so this is unimaginable to me.
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