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Computer Scientist Parachutes From 135,908 Feet, Breaking Record
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times reports that Alan Eustace, a computer scientist and senior VP at Google, has successfully broken the record for highest freefall jump, set by Felix Baumgartner in 2012. "For a little over two hours, the balloon ascended at speeds up to 1,600 feet per minute to an altitude of 135,908 feet, more than 25 miles. Mr. Eustace dangled underneath in a specially designed spacesuit with an elaborate life-support system. He returned to earth just 15 minutes after starting his fall. ... Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour, setting off a small sonic boom heard by observers on the ground. ... His technical team had designed a carbon-fiber attachment that kept him from becoming entangled in the main parachute before it opened. About four-and-a-half minutes into his flight, he opened the main parachute and glided to a landing 70 miles from the launch site."
Has Bennett Haselton certified this record-breaking feat? I will not believe these claims until he has written a lengthy blog post on how this feat relates to Burning Man ice queues and distributed social networks.
It takes a dedicated conspiracist to declare how the elite are pulling the wool over our eyes at news of an incremental improvement in a record achievement.
He planned to go up and try it again.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Hadn't heard anything of this before today, I'll have to look for videos. I guess he didn't want to draw any attention.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Unfortunately, it wasn't covered by the Discovery Channel. Sigh! I'm glad to see a Computer Scientist break the record :-)
This guy got plopped off the end of a trash pick tool
it would have been cool if he would have jumped from 128,000 feet. ;)
So this skydiving student goes on his first solo jump. When the plane gets up to altitude and over the target, he jumps. Falling to the proper altitude, he pulls the release on the main chute. Nothing.
Fighting back panic, he remembers what they taught in class and pulls the release on the backup chute. Nothing happens again. Things are starting to look pretty grim as he watches the ground rapidly approach.
Then, he notices a man, rising toward him from the ground. Odd, he thinks to himself. But what the hell ..... When this person gets within earshot, the skydiver yells, "Hey buddy! Do you know how to work a parachute?"
"No", the other person replies. "Do you know how to light a Coleman stove?"
Have gnu, will travel.
You can tell it was a REAL computer scientist because there was no "test first", just pure perfect action.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Another trend people with no life will begin to follow, and post all over the internet
Vladimir Putin announced on Russian Times that he will jump from the Mir space station at an altitude of 300,000 kilometers to celebrate the upcoming 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad.
...JA - Jump If Above.
What's the record for EEs? I might have a shot at that.
-Dave
Has Bennett Haselton certified this record-breaking feat? I will not believe these claims until he has written a lengthy blog post on how this feat relates to Burning Man ice queues and distributed social networks.
I don't it and searching gives me no insight.
Please explain.
I watched Baumgartner's jump live and a follow up documentary on it and it seemed to me far too much credit for his jump was given to him. He got claustrophibic in the suit so dropped out of the project for an entire year and only came back when he got worried that a test pilot making test jumps in his place might do the actual record jump and deny him his press. I like this new one, seems to have been done for the right reasons.
If he did this without wearing google glasses I'm going to be upset.
Call me when someone does a jump from the ISS :-P
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
The next record-breaking attempt will end badly with the man floating away into the emptiness of space.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
I can hardly wait for the paper.
(ba-dum-ching!)
Would have been much cheaper if he dove from 5 miles up 5 times.
But... Google.
From the News story - "Mr. Eustace’s maximum altitude was initially reported as 135,908 feet. The final number, based on information from two data loggers, being submitted to the World Air Sports Federation is 135,890 feet."
- A Frog in a pond utters an azure cry. -
For the bizarre books that the former keep.
Nothing to do with geeks even if (and increasingly 'precisely because') it involves Google.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Sheldon, is that you?
...FB's jump was fucking everywhere.
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
He should call out Mark Zuckerberg to jump.
...unless this leads to the development of technology which has a "useful" use.
This could be for the hypothetical, and highly unlikely scenarios, where one knows a plane will fall apart in the next few minutes and the only hope for the passengers is to put on their high altitude parachute gear, jump, and hope for the best.
Spending ridiculous amounts of money breaking this record just to seek notoriety, is about as interesting as breaking the record for eating boiled eggs. (That just happened to be on the TV earlier.)
The hell do I care if he is a "Computer Scientist"....
"135,908 feet, more than 25 miles" - I had to laugh, a mile is not anyhow more imaginable unit than a foot.
... most archaic unit in an otherwise metric world. I hear the top speed reached was 42 furlongs per fortnight :-)
No one like a show off, honey.
(...)
Everyone else in the world is working hard to make the world a better place, but these bastards are having fun skydiving from long distance. Don't they have anything better to do?
Mr. Eustace cut himself loose from the balloon with the aid of a small explosive device and plummeted toward the earth at a speeds that peaked at more than 800 miles per hour,
What I want to know, is how he smuggled an explosive device past the ever vigilant TSA before he boarded his flight!