Balloon Jump From the Edge of space today

[John_P_WI]

Morning Guys,

Felix Baumgartner is currently on the ascent to the edge of space in attempt of his historic jump.

God speed, hope all goes well for him.

It can be watched live here:

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

[xtian]

Wow. Awesome.

Also, *yawn*…txt me when he's about to exit the craft!

[Reeltarded]

I jumped from higher than that once when a cockroach ran across my foot.

[martin manning]

Well that was fun, thanks for the heads up. Discovery Channel had a live feed going today, and I understand there are DC and Nat Geo documentaries comming up.

[Structo]

Yep, I watched it live on YouTube.

Pretty spectacular.

I think he was a little short on the record free fall but he set the altitude and speed record.

I believe he got up to at least 700 mph!

It might not seem that big of a deal but the world record was set back in 1960 by Colonel Joseph W. Kittinger II who was in the control room during this mission.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger

[xtian]

This was fun because I had been reading about Felix for years in Wired magazine. After each time they'd run an article, I'd think, "So, when's the jump?!?"

[rdjones]

Yeah, I've been following this since last year, and watched the live feed on Discovery.
Pretty exciting to see this kind of stuff still being pursued considering the general lack of interest in space related endeavors in recent years.
I was impressed by the video quality of the feed and disappointed by the poor audio quality.

RedDog Steve

ps - I was part of the ground crew for a SAREX project on STS-58, when I had the chance to meet several of the astronauts who flew that mission.