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Felix Baumgartner's Supersonic Skydive Attempt
First time accepted submitter madcarrots writes "The Red Bull Stratos space jump is about to take place. The balloon is filling up and launch is expected around 10 AM MDT. Check out the live feed of the inflation process... it's beautiful!" After some delays it looks like the jump is finally going to happen. UPDATE: The jump was a success. Baumgartner is on the ground and apparently fine.
Yes getting people interested in science with stunts is a complete waste of time. NASA has totally failed to capture the imaginative of kids these days, even though decades ago they were doing things very similar to this. Sure this isn't exactly going to the moon, but there is a lot of science behind this, and if it helps people become more interested, then it is far from a waste of time or money.
You're assuming he doesn't die.
Something was still off between those two on communications. I think Joe was trying to put him at ease, probably had direct view of his heart rate and other things we couldn't see. But I think Felix was having a fight or flight moment. I actually worried something with his suit pressure was wrong because he was acting like he had nitrogen narcosis ( or the equivalent at opposite extremes of pressure). He was slow to respond, and sometimes didn't respond or acknowledge at all. I can't help to think if this was a NASA or military exercise, they would have stopped the egress checklist and switched to a "is our pilot ok" checklist. It was painful to watch.
-Malakai
A Dragon Lives in my Garage
When he landed they should have given him a "Red Bull" rather than a bottle of water.
Concern for his well being should supersede marketing concerns. So I call that a major WIN.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
AFAIK the only kangaroos in Austria are in the zoo.
History and the modern world are fraught with examples of people wasting resources without adequate planning for the future. Deferring to market-think doesn't make that problem go away. Overconfidence in the market is what causes or exacerbates a high percentage of our problems.
Even if it WERE true that the market would probably respond to a helium shortage by supplying additional quantities, that doesn't change the fact that one asshole, who wants glory badly enough and who has enough power and resources to make people assist him in his goal, can use much more of a resource than any person has a right to, given the current state of affairs and supply of that resource. As another commenter said, healthcare is RATIONING helium, right now.
the temp was likely correct. the temp decreases with altitude only until you reach the tropopause. after that you are in the stratosphere and temperature rises with altitude. this jump was well above the tropopause.