Unfortunately I barely missed the live jump. Will a recorded video be posted, or is there one already available?
Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
121–130 of 149 posts
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#122To Red Bull: fix your coverage next time! Your website and Twitter feeds weren't really ever carrying the latest information pre-launch, and your blog was 24 hours out-of-date whenever I checked. (Also YouTube was buffering, it wasn't my connection). Bit of a mess from the PR-masters imo.
I really dislike comments like this. What happened today was an impressive technical achievement by any measure, and for me at least, one of the most nail bitingly tense things I've ever seen broadcast, and yet we still get people calling it a "bit of a mess", criticizing utterly trivial issues, because that's all they can criticize.
Perhaps YouTube was buffering because of the MILLIONS of people watching this amazing event? PR mess? You've got to be kidding.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like the freefall duration record wasn't beaten :(
I'm personally wondering of Felix did that deliberately to leave Joe in the record books.
He was also complaining just before that that his visor was fogged over. Perhaps he deployed because of that.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
wow. is he that white haired guy in base station? seems he was also that guy who has set the previous freefall record in the 60s.
Yes, Kittinger is the man walking Felix through the procedures. This is the Dynamic Duo of high altitude jumping. I felt a shiver listening to them, this is a day I think I will tell my children about. p.s. Kittinger is 84!
Thanks for catching this. The simple fact he was so excited for Felix cheering him on the whole time really added a wonderful dynamic to the event.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#125Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#126Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#127Unfortunately I barely missed the live jump. Will a recorded video be posted, or is there one already available?
Yes, the video will be posted youtube.com/redbull in the next few hours.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#128Could someone explain to me whether this is a marketing stunt and nothing more or whether there is some substance behind this? Put another way: Will any scientists or engineers (at least potentially) learn something interesting from this? It's cool no matter what, but it would be even cooler if there were some substance behind it.
Besides proving our thoughts on what happens to the human body going through the speed of sound, there's an aspect of safety as well. If successful jumping at 120,000 feet, that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency.
Yes if they can slow down the aircraft so it's floating in the air, and if the can do that they wouldn't need to revert to parachuting out.
So yes its a publicity stunt and waste of helium (which is in short supply). Im sure he shouted "It gives you wings!" as he jumped.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#129Could someone explain to me whether this is a marketing stunt and nothing more or whether there is some substance behind this? Put another way: Will any scientists or engineers (at least potentially) learn something interesting from this? It's cool no matter what, but it would be even cooler if there were some substance behind it.
Besides proving our thoughts on what happens to the human body going through the speed of sound, there's an aspect of safety as well. If successful jumping at 120,000 feet, that means that NASA could deploy these same space suits as an exit plan for astronauts in an emergency.
Yes if they can slow down the aircraft so it's floating in the air, and if the can do that they wouldn't need to revert to parachuting out.
So yes its a publicity stunt and waste of helium (which is in short supply). Im sure he shouted "It gives you wings!" as he jumped.
Re: Red Bull Stratos Skydive Rescheduled for today
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
But, will it advance the state of science? Maybe if he actually goes to Mach 1 that could prove interesting but otherwise the "science" part of that whole thing makes me cringe. For example they put the "edge of space" at 36km (it's actually usually considered to be at ~100km), there is no explanation for such gross errors except that they want to market the crap out of this.
While you care it's not the edge of space, and I care, do your mother care? Does she know the difference between the two, or is 128,000 feet just really high, and might as well be outer space. If anyone does figure it out, well yeah it's a marketing spin, but it doesn't discount what he did and what it took to get there.
But with such a huge spin on it, people will not only miss an opportunity to be educated on what he actually did, they are actively being misled about it. I just can't stand such rubbish tactics.
The jump height is just one particular point that I noticed, and it was a point where they seemed to deliberately put a lot of spin on it in a couple of places:
1) They consistently called it "edge of space". It's a lot closer to an airliners flight height than the edge of space (100km).
2) Their consistent use of fish-eye lenses for the outside imagery made it seem like you can actually see the earth's curvature, conjuring up images of space-flight.
3) Whenever he talked with Kittinger on the ground, they background animation showed a rotating earth from LEO.
Together this all seems to mislead an unsuspecting viewer into believing that he jumped from somewhere a lot higher. What's wrong with being honest about it being 39km and nowhere near space?