Red Bull Stratos is a scientific mission to 120,000 feet. Jumping from a stratospheric balloon one man will attempt to break the speed of sound in free-fall.
A skydiver will today attempt a death defying skydive from approximately 23 miles above the surface of the earth, a world record, and in the process become the first human being the break the sound barrier.
Felix Baumgartner, a former military parachutist, has already undertaken two practice jumps- from 15 and 18 miles each, but this will be his first attempt to break the record set by Joseph Kittinger in 1960. Kittinger jumped from 19.5 miles, which remains the highest jump of all time, and came close to breaking the sound barrier, reaching 614 mph, but it is expected that Baumgartner will achieve the feat as he travels at speeds exceeding 690 mph.
Kittinger is working on the mission and will be the only person with direct voice contact to Baumgartner during his jump. The mission will be the result of 5 years of preparation.
Baumgartner will face several serious dangers to his life during the mission. The most significant of all is that scientists and doctors can’t be sure exactly how a human body will react to breaking the sound barrier. He will be exposed to temperatures of -70 degrees Celsuis and any tear in his suit or loss of control could cause bubbles to form in his blood or blood vessells to burst in his brain.
A fifty storey helium balloon will launch from Roswell, New Mexico, and carry Baumgartner to the very edge of space, where he will hop out into the sky and fall back towards earth. His fall is expected to take approximately ten minutes and Red Bull, the sponsors of the jump, have rigged close to thirty cameras to capture the jump. There will be a twenty second delay on the video in case of a tragic accident during the jump.
style="text-decoration: underline;"> style="color: #ff0000;">Felix Baumgartner’s 120,000 foot jump mission has been aborted until today due to gusty winds in New Mexico, USA.
You can watch the jump live here on Newstalk.ie:
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