Skydiver Makes Space Jump From 13 Miles Up
Skydiving superstar Felix Baumgartner rode a pressurized capsule to the dizzying altitude of 71,580 feet this morning, paused to admire the curvature of the Earth and then jumped.
“Fearless Felix” reached 364.4 mph — more than 534 feet per second — during a freefall that reportedly lasted 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Then he pulled the cord on his parachute and landed safely 30 miles from Roswell, New Mexico at 9:50 a.m. All told, he spent 8 minutes and 8 seconds falling to earth, according to the folks at Red Bull Stratos, the name of the project.
Baumgartner is only the third person in history to have jumped from such a height.
He expects to break the sound barrier and freefall for at least 5.5 minutes when he jumps from 120,000 feet. Should he succeed, Baumgartner will eclipse the record Joe Kittinger, a retired Air Force colonel from Florida, has held since jumping from 102,800 feet (19.5 miles) in 1960.
As amazing as it was, the leap from 13.5 miles was but a test run for his truly insane plan for a record-setting stratospheric skydive later this summer from 23 miles up.
I’ve posted about my fascination with Joe Kittinger and the Excelsior Gondola here.
More photos at Wired.com
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staticsmurf reblogged this from kenyatta and added:
can I do this, please?
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pontificatorymasturbation reblogged this from calcifer155 and added:
first world fun
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bigboxcar reblogged this from kenyatta and added:
This is so badass. Just look at that photo! And then he jumped.
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shalomamen reblogged this from kenyatta and added:
Scary Stuff!
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speshal-k reblogged this from kenyatta and added:
I so want to see this guy (or someone) set a new altitude record. That would be utterly awesome!
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justin said:
BALLER
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melttheice reblogged this from kenyatta and added:
Holy shit!
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