![]() ![]() Baumgartner will have to equalise his ears like a scuba diver, the altitude making decompression sickness (‘the bends’) a real issue. But more dangerous is the pressure: at 120,000ft, there’s almost a total vacuum and the atmospheric pressure is roughly one per cent of what we experience at sea level. Outside, the cold could reach a frosty –56✬. Inside the 6m-diameter capsule (the exterior of which is based on NASA’s Gemini and Apollo spacecraft), Baumgartner will be busy the entire time, providing feedback to mission control about his condition and the state of the capsule. Once the order is given, it’s just two or three hours to the roof of the world. So the Stratos team will monitor the weather in fine detail before giving the okay for launch. We’re taking a risk there and Felix realises that if the balloon were to break there is a high probability of injury and possibly death.”Īt just 0.02mm – about one-tenth the thickness of a sandwich bag – the balloon’s extra-thin material makes it susceptible to many things, including a gentle breeze. “If the balloon breaks while the capsule is lower than 2,000ft, the recovery parachute doesn’t have time to open fully and slow the capsule down before it hits the ground,” explains Art Thompson, the Stratos technical director. The danger starts not miles above the Earth, but just after launch. By the time it reachesits destination 37km (23 miles) up, the balloon itself will be the height of a 79-storey building. He’ll be carried in a pressurised capsule below the balloon, which will be partially filled with helium, a lighter-than-air gas that will expand in the thinning atmosphere as the balloon rises. Baumgartner’s inflatable bag is made from 40 acres of polyethylene. To reach the stratosphere without a rocket, you need a balloon – a really big one. The data collected about Baumgartner’s body and the technology encased in his jump suit could be critical for the future of human spaceflight. The jump, named Red Bull Stratos after the energy drinks manufacturer that conceived of and is backing the mission, is about more than just bragging rights. If Baumgartner is successful, he’ll record the longest freefall in history, the highest manned balloon flight and the highest parachute jump. Given that several have died trying to dive from such heights, it would be easy to characterise Baumgartner as a reckless daredevil, but he’s the opposite: inquisitive, calculating, methodical. And for his next stunt, he will be testing the human body and equipment designed to protect it in the lethal environment of the stratosphere, the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, which stretches from around 30,000 to over 150,000ft above the Earth. Baumgartner is a careful planner he’ll need to be as just one mistake could mean disaster (credit: Red Bull)īaumgartner is a test pilot – he just doesn’t have a vehicle. The words ‘Born To Fly’ are tattooed on his right forearm. In 1999, he made the lowest BASE jump in history, off the outstretched arm of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro in 2003, he ‘flew’ across the English Channel with a carbon-fibre wing strapped to his back. The 42-year-old Austrian has made a living courting and defying death. The man’s name is Felix Baumgartner, and he’s not your average thrill-seeker. But it’s exactly how he safely completes the freefall that is the key reason for making the jump. Twenty minutes later – assuming he isn’t dead – the man will be back on Earth and in the record books. He will become the first person to go supersonic without the aid of a jet engine. ![]() At 120,000ft there will be no air resistance to slow him down, so he’ll tear through the sound barrier in less than half a minute. He’ll hurtle head-first through an environment that, without protection, would kill him in 14 seconds. A man will jump from a helium balloon halfway to the edge of space. ![]() Believe it or not, the mission is all about safety. ![]()
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