STATEMENT REGARDING RED BULL STRATOS - on hold

[judoGTI]

Anyone have more details on this? I think a Vortexer was even working on this project if I remember correctly.

Red Bull GmbH and Red Bull North America, Inc. have decided to stop the Red Bull Stratos program with immediate effect.

Felix Baumgartner had been scheduled to undertake a stratospheric balloon flight to 120,000 feet and attempt a freefall jump that would, for the first time, reach supersonic speeds as well as deliver valuable scientific data.

Despite the fact that many other people over the past 50 years have tried to break Colonel (Ret.) Joe Kittinger's record, and that other individuals have sought to work with Red Bull in an attempt to break his record, Mr. Hogan claims to own certain rights to the project and filed a multi million dollar lawsuit earlier this year in a Californian court. Red Bull has acted appropriately in its prior dealings with Mr. Hogan, and will demonstrate this as the case progresses. Due to the lawsuit, we have decided to stop the project until this case has been resolved.

[AZGolf]

Why am I not surprised that human progress is halted by lawsuits filed in California courts?

[Hybrid VW]

I don't know all the details, but I have no idea how this guy could possibly win anything. He apparently had corresponded with Red Bull about the idea and provided them with a source for a balloon and Russian pressure suit, among other stuff, I assume. The idea is 50 years old, as mentioned, at least one other attempt at the record was named "Stratos", and the pressure suit is supplied by David Clark Company. He can't sue Red Bull Austria because the suit would get laughed out of court, so now at least one of the defendants is a company that Mr. Hogan never had any correspondence with. Dumb.

[DonL]

Why am I not surprised that human progress is halted by lawsuits filed in California courts?

Uh, yeah, this ^^ ...

I'm a big Kittinger fan, and was going to be bummed to see the record broken, but to have the project derailed like this is woeful. I mean, really? Hogan is listed in another article as a, "promoter." That's nearly synonymous with, "snake oil salesman," as far as I'm concerned. What a turdball.

[dubfan]

Looks like this is back on:

Skydiving superstar Felix Baumgartner rode a pressurized capsule to the dizzying altitude of 71,580 feet this morning, paused to admire the curvature of the Earth and then … jumped.

That’s when things got really wild.

“Fearless Felix” reached 364.4 mph — more than 534 feet per second — during a freefall that reportedly lasted 3 minutes and 43 seconds. Then he pulled the cord on his parachute and landed safely 30 miles from Roswell, New Mexico at 9:50 a.m. All told, he spent 8 minutes and 8 seconds falling to earth, according to the folks at Red Bull Stratos, the name of the project.

“I wanted to open the parachute after descending for a while, but I noticed that I was still at an altitude of 50,000 feet,” Baumgartner said.

Baumgartner is only the third person in history to have jumped from such a height. As amazing as it was, the leap from 13.5 miles was but a test run for his truly insane plan for a record-setting stratospheric skydive later this summer from 23 miles up.

Cool pics at the link:

http://www.wired.com/playbook/2012/03/red-bull-stratos/

[dubfan]

October 8:

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/09/...nned-for-oct-8

ROSWELL, N.M. (Red Bull Stratos PR) – The final countdown for Felix Baumgartner’s history making jump from the edge of space began on Monday after the Red Bull Stratos Technical Project Director Art Thompson declared the repaired space capsule is fit and all systems are go.

The tentative launch date for Baumgartner’s attempt to jump from an altitude of 36,576 meters has now been set for October 8, ending a period of uncertainty for the team and, for Baumgartner, the agony of waiting. The Austrian extreme sport athlete had to endure delays due to the repairs but is now delighted that the countdown is on for his attempt to become the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall and set four other world records in the process.

A central aim of the Red Bull Stratos project is to collect valuable data for science that could ultimately help improve the safety of space travel and enable high-altitude escapes from spacecraft. The jump will also attempt to break an assortment of records such as highest speed in freefall, highest jump, highest manned balloon flight and longest freefall.

[Gern_Blanston]

Uh, yeah, this ^^ ...

I'm a big Kittinger fan, and was going to be bummed to see the record broken, but to have the project derailed like this is woeful. I mean, really? Hogan is listed in another article as a, "promoter." That's nearly synonymous with, "snake oil salesman," as far as I'm concerned. What a turdball.

This^^ Kittinger = Still the Man

[WeenerBoy]

i wonder if the sound barrier will blow him up into a bunch little pieces...

apologies if this is explained somewhere...

[Geekengineer]

i wonder if the sound barrier will blow him up into a bunch little pieces...

apologies if this is explained somewhere...

Listen to the narrator at the beginning of this clip from The Right Stuff:



Indeed, the sound barrier was mightily feared. It had (arguably) been brushed up against by P-47s and P-38s in high-speed dives during teh Doublya Doublya Too, and scared the crap out of pilots who suddenly found their controls completely useless.

[gr8shandini]

i wonder if the sound barrier will blow him up into a bunch little pieces...

apologies if this is explained somewhere...

Chances are that if he gets supersonic, it won't be by much. The static pressure increase across a shockwave at, say, 1.1M is about 25% and the atmospheric pressure is pretty low at those altitudes, so we're not talking about huge stresses here.

And, for what it's worth, the "sound barrier" doesn't actually exist. The drag curve for transonic speeds has a "hump" in it at around Mach 1.



Before we got to the other side, it was assumed by some that it would just keep going up and that it would take an infinite amount of power to go supersonic. Of course, people knew that things like high-powered rifle bullets went supersonic, so that couldn't possibly be true.

However, there were another set of challenges faced by pilots trying to break the "sound barrier" which Geekengineer alluded to. Namely, there's a shift in center of pressure as you transition through Mach 1 which can lead to instabilities, and there are alot of nasty aeroelastic effects that can occur on aircraft that aren't designed for those speeds.

[Hybrid VW]

Here's a shot I got from the last launch:


The ballon is over 300 feet long when it's layed out on the ground. The one for the next launch will be even bigger, but will use the same amount of helium

[AZGolf]

The one for the next launch will be even bigger, but will use the same amount of helium

There's a theory behind that, right? Like the helium quantity is determined by the load it needs to carry and the size of the balloon is then what determines the burst altitude, right?

[Hybrid VW]

Not sure about burst altitude, since these balloons aren't designed to be elastic like a weather ballon, afaik. But as it's been explained to me, it's all about displacement. The bigger balloon allows the helium to expand more, thus displacing more of the atmosphere and continuing to rise until it reaches equilibrium. At these altitudes, it takes a large change in the volume of the balloon to get a decent increase in altitude.

[Hybrid VW]

Packed Felix's reserve parachute last night. The jump is scheduled for tomorrow, and I guess you can watch it live Details on www.redbullstratos.com

[joness0154]

Packed Felix's reserve parachute last night. The jump is scheduled for tomorrow, and I guess you can watch it live Details on www.redbullstratos.com

I'll be tuned in! Gonna be awesome to watch, you must be thrilled to be part of the program!

[dubfan]

Packed Felix's reserve parachute last night. The jump is scheduled for tomorrow, and I guess you can watch it live Details on www.redbullstratos.com

Very cool

Looks like the weather hold is lifted -- jump in about two hours (around 1pm Eastern)?



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...10-09-11-04-58

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) -- A weather hold that threatened to cancel extreme athlete and skydiver Felix Baumgartner's death-defying, 23-mile free fall into the southeastern New Mexico desert was lifted Tuesday morning and crews began laying out his balloon.

The planned early morning launch had been delayed by high winds. But just before 9 a.m., the winds calmed and the team decided to proceed with plans to make the flight, a process that would take about two hours.

That's 9am local, MDT, IIRC.

[dubfan]

Live feed, from Discovery channel:

http://news.discovery.com/space/red-...ed-121008.html

Hashtag #stratos on Twitter -- lots of info.

[dubfan]

[Row1Rich]

Aborted launch, are they going to try again?

[mraguilar]

Aborted launch, are they going to try again?

was waiting the morning for it, I hope tomorrow they try again

[Minker17]

They will re-evaluate tomorrow. The days coming after that aren't looking good weather wise.

[randy]

Whoa, watching live now. Felix's responses sounds like he's drowsy.

[Cooper]

Absolutely unreal.

No friggin' way I would hop off.

[Fantomasz]

he did it !

[dubfan]

[DonL]

Holy crap, that first step off was crazy.

Looks like highest altitude manned balloon flight and highest altitude free fall records are reset. Longest free fall stayed with Kittenger.

I've gotta admit from the start, I kinda wanted Kittenger to keep his records, but to see his support backing Baumgartner, to the extent of even being Baumgartner's primary ground control contact, IMO, showed a lot of class. Some folks are bitter and resentful to see whatever record they have broken, but not Kittenger. Very cool, Mr. K.

Congrats to all on an amazing project.

[Cooper]

Very cool, Mr. K.

I agree.

So glad I wasn't interested in the 1 PM football game and went to the TV listings to see what else was on. Just chanced on it.

Even my wife was really interested in it.

[joness0154]

Packed Felix's reserve parachute last night. The jump is scheduled for tomorrow, and I guess you can watch it live Details on www.redbullstratos.com

Good thing he didn't need the reserve And it appears that your chute harness held up quite well

Congrats again to you, Felix and the whole Stratos team!

[Uberhare]

833 mph in freefall......that is unreal.

[turborave]