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.

Comments

Redbull

[bobstreo]

Has identified the limits of server capacity.

Re:Redbull

[ThatsMyNick]

Before the server dies, here is the direct youtube link to the live feed - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrIxH6DToXQ

Re:Redbull

[dtmos]

the operator at the control center has a little bit of unfocused goofiness.

You mean Joe Kittenger, the man who holds the existing record, the man Felix trusts implicitly, and possesses the only voice that Felix wants to hear in his capsule?

When you are old enough to need bifocals, you'll appreciate the difference between "unfocused goofiness" and just trying to see.

Re:Redbull

[malakai]

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.

Re:Redbull

[bytesex]

He was also in a pressure suit the severely limited his motion. Maybe he was just too busy to talk, trying to figure out how to get certain things done.

Re:Redbull

[Sulphur]

When he was asked to confrim that his pressure suite is inflating he just sat there and didn't respond (nothing to do apparently). Kittinger asked repeatedly and only then after some secondes (20, 30?) he got an answer.

Briefly time became two dimensional.

Re:Redbull

[trout007]

I'm certified as an Enriched Air diver and you are a bit confused. It's the partial pressure of Oxygen that will kill you. The safe limit we dive to is 1.6 atm partial pressure of O2. This means that you could breath pure O2 in about 20 ft of water. Below that it's toxic.
In spacesuits they breath pure O2 at about 3-4 psi. The reason is if you put in other gases your mixed gas pressure will be too high and you can't move in a flexible suit. If you go too low you are in trouble too.

Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally!

[Anonymous Coward]

FINALLY... A Slashdot posting that doesn't appear AFTER the event! :-)

Be patient

[Grayhand]

They are holding up the video feed until they pry his hands off the safety rail.

Re:ha!

[lilfields]

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.

Re:Hydrogen?

[hawguy]

Are you high or something? Or is scientific stuff only the stuff you approve of?

Well, I'm more interested in the medical usage - about six months ago, my dad had to reschedule an MRI, the imaging center said that there was a shortage of helium needed to run the unit. He had a non-critical need for his MRI so rescheduling was not a problem, but I have to think that the 30 million cubic feet of helium that they are venting to the atmosphere in this thrill ride would keep a lot of MRI machines running.

http://www.fiercemedicalimaging.com/story/helium-shortage-threatens-access-mri-services/2012-09-23

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[lennier1]

If it goes wrong it'll still set a record for the most expensive attempt to dig a hole to China without the use of a shovel.

Re:Famous last word

[jrmcc]

Nope - "Redbull gives you wiiiiiings!"

Re:Hydrogen?

[Iskender]

Except that medical grade helium and the crap they fill party balloons with are two different things.

Helium is an element. It won't break down, and actually due to being helium it won't even form compounds. The only problem is that it leaks into space, never to return.

If helium is mixed up with other elements you can purify it. Compared to purifying gold ore it's probably child's play.

The line about balloon helium being somehow different from important helium is actually the standard line of the balloon manufacturers. But it makes no scientific sense, so don't listen to it.

For an official record ...

[MartinSchou]

For it to be an official record, doesn't he need to do it twice, once in each direction?

Re:Speed_of_sound 1,236 km/h

[rochrist]

The speed of sound varies with air pressure. At 100,000 ft, the SoS is actually 680mph.

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[magic maverick]

You are a moron. Felix Baumgartner is an Austrian (you know, from Austria, in Europe). The company sponsoring the event, Red Bull, is also Austrian. So ah, I guess, fuck you.

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Things like this are good to show your kids to demonstrate what a Real American can do with guts and determination and also to show them the indomitability of the American spirit and how we don't need to take any God damn shit from the Chinks, Japs, Eurotrash etc.

If he had have died it would have additionally shown your kids that jumping off high things is very dangerous.

So really it's win/win.

Except he is Austrian.....

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Get back in your kangaroo and piss off. No one cares about your pedantry.

Re:Hydrogen?

[Xylantiel]

My impression from the previous discussion on this was that helium shortage is a fictional crisis. Medical usages don't do helium recovery, which is where most of the loss occurs. Also the main source of helium - as a by-product of natural gas extraction - just vents most of it because its not worth capturing it. So complaining about "misuse" is nonsense. If one is really worried about a helium shortage one should be pushing for recovery in its biggest usage context and stockpiling. Neither of these are being discussed, so apparently this isn't actually serious.

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[tqk]

... roughly at -34.45221847282653, 75.2783203125

That's roughly? Are you a Vulcan, or positronic?

Re:Yay. Slashdot is up to date and current finally

[JustOK]

"roughly" modified HOW it would place him, not the where.

--Live long and avoid inefficiency.