Skydiver Felix Baumgartner Completes 17-Mile Dive

[Times Roman]

Well, it looks like i may be right. NOT able to break the speed of sound due to free fall. btw... speed of sound In dry air at 20 °C (68 °F), the speed of sound is 343.2 metres per second (1,126 ft/s). This is 1,236 kilometres per hour (768 mph). The thinner the atmosphere, or the higher the elevation, the SLOWER sound travels.

http://news.yahoo.com/skydiver-felix...news-tech.html

Daredevil Felix Baumgartner this morning landed from his 17-mile dive back to Earth from the edge of space, in a plummet that reached a speed of 600 mph in 20 seconds.

Mission Control gave the go ahead this morning for the launch, saying "God Speed Felix" from Roswell, N.M., where the mission is being hosted. Baumgartner, an Austrian national, was lifted in a capsule carried afloat by a huge helium balloon.

The balloon took 90 minutes to get to 90,000 feet. The crane holding the capsule went up as fast as it could to get the capsule under the 210-foot tall balloon as it rose. After he jumped, Baumgartner was in freefall for five minutes. After five minutes, his parachute opened, at which point it took another seven to10 minutes to descend to Earth.

"The pressure is huge, and we not only have to endure but excel," Baumgartner told ABC News before the jump. "We're excellently prepared, but it's never going to be a fun day. I'm risking my life, after all."

Red Bull is financing the daredevil skydive from space. The mission is named Stratos. It was five years of planning by a team of experts, many volunteering their services, to break several records in one breathtaking plunge back to Earth.

The Records Baumgartner had planned to break included those for the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an aircraft, the record for freefall from the highest altitude, and that for the longest freefall time, expected to be five minutes and 35 seconds, and that for the highest-manned balloon flight.

Baumgartner would be breaking a 52-year-old record, and he recruited the man who set the record, the legendary retired Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger, for advice.

Kittinger jumped from a balloon Aug. 16, 1960, at an altitude of 102,900 feet, and fell for almost five minutes before opening a parachute to slow his descent at 18,000 feet.

He made history for the highest-balloon ascent, the highest parachute jump and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere.

[Razor]

This was really amazing, I think he is going to jump again but 7 miles higher

[Times Roman]

I've met one HALO diver, and this bloke was world class. He'd jump in the dead of night, ten miles up, ox packs and cold weather gear and every thing... I think he said that for every mile he fell, he could travel horizontally .4 or .5 miles or so. Which meant if they dropped him close to enemy lines, he could travel 5 miles behind enemy lines.

This bloke had hundreds of HALO jumps, and was a HALO instructor.

Many jump. Few HALO

[Tigershark]

This guy has some real stones. Read this on Yahoo also and I have no interest travelling that fast in a suit. Because only two things can happen...
1. Chute opens you live.
2. Chute does not and you go into the ground like a dart and vaporize on the impact.
No thank you.

[DanB]

This guy has some real stones. Read this on Yahoo also and I have no interest travelling that fast in a suit. Because only two things can happen...
1. Chute opens you live.
2. Chute does not and you go into the ground like a dart and vaporize on the impact.
No thank you.

Closer to death you are, the more alive you feel

I'd do it in a second, nearly finished my AFF license, only 2 jumps left then I can jump myself, just rent plane for the day and jump as much as you like

Get 25 then you go onto night jumps and the other avenue is when it gets really interesting, BASE (although i cheated and done several already) and onto wingsuit, which I shall conquer in next couple year.............

[Armykid93]

I've met one HALO diver, and this bloke was world class. He'd jump in the dead of night, ten miles up, ox packs and cold weather gear and every thing... I think he said that for every mile he fell, he could travel horizontally .4 or .5 miles or so. Which meant if they dropped him close to enemy lines, he could travel 5 miles behind enemy lines.

This bloke had hundreds of HALO jumps, and was a HALO instructor.

Many jump. Few HALO

What makes it a halo jump?

[Times Roman]

High
Altitude
Low
Opening

It's a very aggressive tactical jump used by the military from very high altitude that reduces the risk of being spotted by the enemy (and therefore shot down while descending). Needless to say, it is also very risky, and requires extensive training. Then, there are HALO jumps at night which are typically reserved for military.

[DanB]

I know you refering to the military HALO and that prob where it was orginally born but a recreational HALO is basically a jump from 13k ft plus, day or night, it the correct term for the commonly used ''skydive''

[Armykid93]

Thanks

[Times Roman]

I know you refering to the military HALO and that prob where it was orginally born but a recreational HALO is basically a jump from 13k ft plus, day or night, it the correct term for the commonly used ''skydive''

I didn't know anything about it until about a year ago. This South African bloke, as one of our security team leaders, was an actual halo instructer in the S. AF special forces. 13k is more or less only 2 miles up. when this bloke would jump, they had to wear pressurized cold weather suits and oxygen masks, much different than anything a civilian would consider.

I think if I talked to this bloke about a jump only from 13k feet, he'd probably tell me that is not a halo jump by his definition. i think, if i remember him telling me, i think one of the elements of Halo is that the air is so thin, breathing is a problem. and without the pressurized suits, nitrogen narcosis (the "bends") is also a real threat.

The whole point of a halo jump is that it is from the very extreme edges of what a human can survive, even with special equipment. the higher up you go, the further in you can fall horizontally behind enemy lines, which is really one of the main reasons of going up so high in the first place.

A halo jump is fairly dangerous, ignoring the fact you are also falling from the sky