Post: Felix Baumgartner Breaks 3 World Records!
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10-14-2012, 08:36 PM
#1
Shebang
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Baumgartner landed safely in New Mexico on Sunday after a reported four-minute, 19-second free fall, reaching a maximum estimated speed of 1,173 kilometres an hour.
He lifted his arms in victory shortly after landing, sending off loud cheers from onlookers and friends inside the mission's control centre in Roswell, N.M.
It wasn't immediately clear whether he had broken the speed of sound during his free-fall, which was one of the goals of the mission.
While official records are still being calculated, the jump broke a number of records, including the highest free-fall jump ever by a human, the fastest free-fall ever and the highest manned balloon flight by a human.
However, Baumgartner was short of achieving the longest free fall record, set in 1960 by Col. Joe Kittinger, who acted as a consultant on Sunday’s jump.
Kittinger jumped from 102,800 feet for a four-minute and 36-second free fall as part of a U.S. Air Force mission.
Baumgartner, also known as “Fearless Felix,” ascended high above Earth on Sunday in a pressurized capsule carried by an ultra-thin, 55-story helium balloon for approximately 2.5 hours before jumping into a near vacuum with no oxygen.
As he exited his capsule from high above Earth, Baumgartner flashed a thumbs-up sign to the viewers watching the jump, which was live-streamed online.
At Baumgartner's insistence, some 30 cameras recorded the event. While it had been pegged as a live broadcast, it was actually under a 20-second delay.
The highly-anticipated space jump experienced a series of delays because of weather conditions.
“They were not prepared to fly until they had the conditions exactly the way they wanted them,” York University astronomy professor Paul Delaney told CTV News Channel on Sunday. “Those conditions lined up tonight in the deserts of New Mexico.”
Delaney said the data collected during the jump provides researchers with invaluable information.
“Most of the science will be of the human body and technologies associated with this flight to keep him, literally to keep him alive,” said Delaney. “We have not had many people at these kinds of altitudes.”
This attempt marked the end of a five-year road for Baumgartner, a record-setting high-altitude jumper. He already made two preparation jumps in the area, one in March from 24 kilometres high and one in July from 29 kilometres high.
It will also be the end of his extreme altitude jumping career; he has promised this will be his final jump.
He broke 3 records: Largest height in a manned capsule, Largest height for a "skydive", and fastest speed a human has gone in a freefall (729mph or 1173km/h).
Source: ctvnews.ca
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10-14-2012, 08:48 PM
#3
ShinigamiUzi
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