JCC Dude jumping out of a spaceship thing and plummeting to Earth today

It's happening in about 6.5 hours. Hoping to break the sound barrier in freefall.

Live stream here.

http://www.redbullstratos.com/live

Hmm...what are the odds that breaking the sound barrier kills you?

Let's ask all the passengers of the Concord. Not the one that crashed, though.

Potential Darwin nominee in the waning months of the year?

Well, I mean outside of the body of an aircraft, obviously.

When I saw Discovery Channel run a 727 into the ground today (for science), my first thought was that it was a shame there were no people on board. Thanks, Red Bull.

Darned you and your NZ time, japes, I even had a thread title worked out "Not all Salzburg residents share my fear of heights".

Pretty cool story, Baumgartner has made something of a name for himself as a base jumper, he's jumped off the two of the tallest buildings in the world, one of the hands of the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio, and he also "jumped" across the English Channel


So today's jump will, if successful, break four world records. And, according to Wired, this isn't all just a gimmick to get you to drink more grotesque sugar water.

The Stratos website has a nice interactive timeline of the jump here, btw.

Just read that his target landing site is Roswell, New Mexico, so I will predict that not only will Baumgartner break the sound barrier, he will also break the time barrier, and we will finally have an answer to what happened back in 1947.

Aircraft. Pressurised space suit... same thing.

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

Well not quite exactly. Supersonic aircraft are specifically engineered to alleviate the extreme stresses that occur as you approach mach speed...been looking around and nobody is quite sure what exactly would happen to the human body as it breaks the sound barrier or when it goes subsonic again. Looks like we'll find out tomorrow, one way or the other.

if he dies it will be hard for them to continue using the "red bull gives you wings" campaign slogan.

Some info on the suit here.

If he dies, expect Red Bull to break the sound barrier as they hurry to distance themselves from the fallout.

They will already have the press release written, and the press conference scripted, for the 'fail' outcome.

How long will the ascent take?

According to the timeline at the website, a little under three hours.

Fate has ordained that this dude who jumped out of a spaceship thing in peace will remain on the ground... as kind of a red splatter.

The RB marketing department has conned half the World's population between 16 and 25 into to drinking nasty sugar-water.I doubt they'll have a problem putting a positive spin on a failure.

So, top of the ascent at 4am my time. I think I'll get the highlights when I wake up at 7am.

Both Austrian public television (ORF1) and Red Bull's own TV station (Servus TV) have coverage all day long. Lift off local time is some time after 2pm. Hope he jumps before 6pm, I only set the PVR to tape until 6:30.

Seriously, the whole company is based on marketing and hype. The beverage has almost become secondary.

EDIT And the fall will take 15-20 minutes. 5 minutes of that in free-fall. Apparently the biggest danger, aside from a tear to the suit, is falling into a spin when he first jumps, since there's no air at that elevation to help him correct his position. Apparently that happened to Joe Kittinger, the current record holder, during one of his practice jumps, he was unconscious for most of the jump, regained consciousness when his backup parachute opened automatically.