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."

Comments

Where's Bennett?

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:Where's Bennett?

[NoImNotNineVolt]

After graduation, Haselton worked on Visual Basic at Microsoft for seven months.

Yet another reason to hate him. Fuck.

And if the attempt failed...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

He planned to go up and try it again.

Skydiving lesson

[PPH]

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?"

That's how we CS people roll

[SuperKendall]

You can tell it was a REAL computer scientist because there was no "test first", just pure perfect action.

Re:That's how we CS people roll

[bob_super]

CS people are raised on "Do or do not. There is not Try"

Re:Being a computer scientist

[0123456]

131,072 feet, surely?

Not to be outdone

[Spy Handler]

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.

Re:Not to be outdone

[cmdr_klarg]

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.

Made even more of an awesome feat due to the fact that Mir had been de-orbited in 2001.

Re:Not to be outdone

[93 Escort Wagon]

Made even more of an awesome feat due to the fact that Mir had been de-orbited in 2001.

OP failed to mention that, to make the jump possible, Mr. Putin first plans to throw Mir back into orbit.

Re:Not to be outdone

[G-Man]

And then he's going to do the jump bare-chested. Riding a bear.

Record

[bigdavex]

Computer Scientist Parachutes From 135,908 Feet, Breaking Record

What's the record for EEs? I might have a shot at that.

Re:Record

[Zynder]

128,908 + 14,337j feet....

Baumgartner took too much credit

[kooky45]

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.

Re:Baumgartner took too much credit

[Ancil]

I like this new one, seems to have been done for the right reasons.

What exactly are "the right reasons"?

I'm being serious. Is there some sort of "right" or "noble" reason to spend all this money jumping from slightly higher than the last guy who spent a lot of money?

Am I missing something here? Off the top of my head, the only reasons which come to mind are "extreme wealth" and "boredom".

Next record

[ArcadeMan]

The next record-breaking attempt will end badly with the man floating away into the emptiness of space.

Re:Being a computer scientist

[93 Escort Wagon]

it would have been cool if he would have jumped from 128,000 feet. ;)

That would only work if he was employed by Western Digital or Maxtor.

Guinness, not Geek

[Mister Liberty]

For the bizarre books that the former keep.
Nothing to do with geeks even if (and increasingly 'precisely because') it involves Google.