So what did you guys think of the Redbull Status jump?

[twobone]

I watched it live.

 

Watching him get out of the capsule and step off that ledge was pretty amazing. That kid has some guts.

 

I was worried about him when he tumbled. I guess there was not enough air initially to allow him to stabilize. I was watching with my 11 year old son. I was hoping he didn't go "splat"

 

1,200+ kph is some pretty massive speed. In a weird way, his breaking the speed of sound is not much of a feat when there is virtually no air up there and no sound waves.

 

I think decelerating thru the speed of sound was probably more of the issue for him.

 

I hope his chest cam worked. I want to watch it from his perspective.

 

Congrats to him!

[slngsht]

I missed it, but looking forward to more footage

[MHKflyer52]

Just amazing.

1342.8 kp/h or 834.377237 MPH is really moving I must say and to be doing it without an aircraft is even more amazing even if it was for just a short time.

[turboeric]

My favourite bit was a twitter comment to the effect of "He realizes Red Bull doesn't really give you wings, doesn't he?"

[MichaelD]

Airborne!

[Mondo]

So what happend to the balloon?

[MHKflyer52]

So what happend to the balloon?

 

Eventually the balloon envelope is recovered and collected by a recovery team for disposal once it comes back to the earth.

From having worked with high altitude research balloons at Global Solutions and Scientific Learning I can say that the balloon usually destroys its self when it has been at float (float is when the amount of Helium in the balloon can no longer cause lift or rise due to the weight of the payload) and the payload (weight) changes and causes the balloon to rise again at a fast speed, usually due to the deployment of the payload or in Felix's case was his stepping off the gondola which reduced the payload weight of the gondola which would have cause it to rise to the point the envelope bursts and then descends back to the earth.

The other way the balloon is deflated is when the payload (the gondola) is detached or jettisoned it would release and a tether that is hooked to the balloons surface tears the balloons skin which releases the helium and cause the envelope to fall back to earth. Some balloons are counter weighted to invert so the helium can excape and the weight then helps to bring the envelope back to earth so it can be recovered.

The Gondola or payload vehicle then descends on a parachute if it is detached from the balloon or in some cases it uses the balloons deflated envelope as a parachute to slow the decent back to earth as it comes back into the atmosphere. If you look at the video of the accent of the gondola to the altitude that Felix departed it from you can see that the gondola was attached to the balloon envelope by a parachute and lines. It is also why the deployment team was concerned that the gondola reached a height of over 5000 feet at the start of the event just to make sure that if the balloon where to have failed the parachute that was attached to the gondola would deploy as Felix would have not been able to bail out in that amount of time or distance before hitting the ground.

Hope this explains and answers your question.

[Nick OTeen]

The balloon was sighted at high altitude over the Los Angeles area Sunday.

[solder_guy]

I thought it was just an interesting stunt .. but what is the scientific value? One reporter suggested that it could help astronauts in trouble (aka Columbia Shuttle astronauts) possibly return safely. But there is a great difference between 25 mi drop and 17000 mph orbital velocity at 125 miles away.

[Jackal]

I have been infatuated with the jump for the last couple weeks. An amazing feat, and I'm sure there is lots of data that can be learned from the jump.

 

I was interested to hear it is not the first time that a pilot was without a plane at Mach + speeds though. It is just as interesting a story.