Starship Asterisk*

http://news.discovery.com/adventure/skydiving-edge-of-space-120207.html wrote:
Discovery.com Tue Feb 7, 2012 12:58 PM ET
Content provided by FoxNews.com/SciTech

[b][color=#0000FF]Daredevil adventurer Felix Baumgartner, sponsored by Red Bull, plans to plunge 23 miles ([u]121,440 feet[/u]) from the edge of space back to Earth.[/color][/b]

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<<After some minor speed bumps, Daredevil adventurer Felix Baumgartner's plans to plunge 23 miles (121,440 feet) from the edge of space back to Earth -- a Red Bull-sponsored stunt that would be the world's highest freefall -- is finally coming to fruition, the team announced Monday, Feb. 6.

After successful rounds of vacuum chamber tests in Texas, the team is now moving to Roswell, N.M., for the mission's final phase of preparations, said Art Thompson, a team technical director who helped develop the B-2 Stealth bomber.

"This test was enormously important for our self-confidence. The success has given us an additional boost to rise to the challenges that still lie ahead," Baumgartner said.

And while breaking records is important, this is also a stunt with great benefit for science. Team medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark hopes their findings can eventually have an impact on space travel and tourism.

"Red Bull Stratos is testing new equipment and developing the procedures for inhabiting such high altitudes as well as enduring such extreme acceleration," Clark said. "The aim is to improve the safety for space professionals as well as potential space tourists. We'll be setting new standards for aviation. Never before has anyone gone supersonic without being in an aircraft," Clark added.

To do it at all required a custom supersonic spacesuit, designed by the David Clark Company, which made the first such pressurized suits to protect World War II fighters during high-speed maneuvers. In the process of his leap, Baumgartner hopes to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier, plummeting toward the ground at 760 miles per hour.

"This mission is all about pioneer work. Maybe one day people will look back and say it was Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team that helped to develop the suit that they're wearing in space. We want to do something for posterity.">>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_fall wrote:
<<According to the Guinness Book of Records, Eugene Andreev (USSR) holds the official FAI record for the longest free-fall parachute jump after falling for 80,380 ft (24,500 m) from an altitude of 83,523 ft (25,460 m) near the city of Saratov, Russia on November 1, 1962. Though later jumpers would ascend higher, Andreev's record was set without the use of a drogue chute during the jump.

Joseph Kittinger starting his record-breaking [b][[color=#0000FF][u]102,800 feet[/u]][/color][/b] skydive.

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During the late 1950s, Captain Joseph Kittinger of the United States was assigned to the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. For Project Excelsior (meaning "ever upward", a name given to the project by Colonel John Stapp), as part of research into high altitude bailout, he made a series of three parachute jumps wearing a pressurized suit, from a helium balloon with an open gondola.

The first, from 76,400 feet (23,290 m) in November, 1959 was a near tragedy when an equipment malfunction caused him to lose consciousness, but the automatic parachute saved him (he went into a flat spin at a rotational velocity of 120 rpm; the g-force at his extremities was calculated to be over 22 times that of gravity, setting another record). Three weeks later he jumped again from 74,700 feet (22,770 m). For that return jump Kittinger was awarded the A. Leo Stevens parachute medal.

On August 16, 1960 he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet (31,330 m). Towing a small drogue chute for stabilization, he fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds reaching a maximum speed of 614 mph (988 km/h) before opening his parachute at 14,000 feet (4,270 m). Pressurization for his right glove malfunctioned during the ascent, and his right hand swelled to twice its normal size. He set records for highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (4 min), and fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere.

The jumps were made in a "rocking-chair" position, descending on his back, rather than the usual arch familiar to skydivers, because he was wearing a 60-lb "kit" on his behind and his pressure suit naturally formed that shape when inflated, a shape appropriate for sitting in an airplane cockpit.

For the series of jumps, Kittinger was decorated with an oak leaf cluster to his Distinguished Flying Cross and awarded the Harmon Trophy by President Dwight Eisenhower.>>

http://www.universetoday.com/97956/baumgarter-survives-heart-pounding-record-setting-freefall/ wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

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Baumgartner Survives Heart-Pounding, Record-Setting Freefall
by Nancy Atkinson on October 14, 2012

<<Aerospace history was made as Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner set several records during an incredible heart-pounding jump from the stratosphere, and he became the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound with just his body. Baumgartner was lifted aloft in a specially made capsule attached to one of the largest helium balloons ever used for human balloon flights. He jumped from approximately 39 km (39,045 meters, 128,100 feet, 24.26 miles) above the Earth, and now has the record for the highest jump, fastest jump and highest human balloon flight. He also broke the speed of sound, hitting an incredible Mach 1.24 or 1,342 km/h (833.9 miles per hour), in his dizzying descent. The previous record holder for three of those records was retired Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger, 84, — Baumgartner’s trainer, mentor and CAPCOM for the jump — who relayed words of encouragement throughout the ascent and helped Baumgartner go through his egress checklist. The only record of Kittinger’s that Baumgartner didn’t break was for the longest time in freefall. Baumgartner dropped for 4 minutes 20 seconds.

Baumgartner could be heard breathing heavily, but regularly, as he stepped onto the ledge of the capsule. Just before he jumped, looking at the view of Earth below, Baumgartner said, “Sometimes you have to go really high to see how small you are.” He then dove feetfirst from the edge of the capsule.

Infrared cameras first picked up a small white dot falling through the sky, and soon the outline of Baumgartner was visible. Then, Baumgartner entered a spin, but he quickly was able to stabilize into a perfect freefall.

Baumgartner could be heard talking during the entire freefall, but his words couldn’t always be made out. At one point he said his visor was fogging up, which had been a problem for much of the ascent inside the capsule. For some time during the ascent, there was discussion of aborting the jump because of the visor problem. But after much discussion and debate between Baumgartner and his team, the decision was made to go ahead with the jump.

While the goal of the jump was mainly to break records, the Red Bull Stratos team said today’s successful jump was a “big win for science,” as it collected valuable data to help improve safety for space travel and may even help with enabling high altitude bailouts from spacecraft that may be in danger. Kittinger’s previous records were: Freefall from highest altitude: 31 km; fastest freefall: 988 km/h (614 mph); and longest freefall: 4 minutes 36 seconds, and so Kittinger still holds that record. The previous record for highest manned balloon flight was 34.66 km made by Victor Prather and Malcolm Ross in 1961.>>

Moonlady wrote:I am waiting to the time that someone is jumping from the middle level of mesosphere!!!
If thats possible, the next generations of ISS crew have to dive back home

Average speed: 7,706.6 m/s, (27,743.8 km/h, 17,239.2 mph)