# Parachuting from 23 miles up. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 6, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872 "2012-10-06T02:35:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/141 "2012-10-14T18:57:36Z")
> [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](#): > > I was reading Kittinger’s wiki page and it says he used a drogue parachute during his record - is that true free fall? Felix didn’t have a drogue parachute, so higher speed but less time spent falling. Technically, no it wasn’t true freefall. According to [Kittinger’s wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger), he set USAF records for “highest balloon ascent, highest parachute jump, longest drogue-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human being through the atmosphere. These are still current USAF records, but were not submitted for aerospace world records to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).” The FAI is the “official” body for recognizing aviation records. ---
**Author:** ![Lantern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lantern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lantern)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/142 "2012-10-14T19:18:29Z")
Great [picture](https://twitter.com/Mike_Vaughan/status/257552997343719424/photo/1)of Felix just before his jump. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/143 "2012-10-14T19:33:36Z")
Press conference starting soon on the [Red Bull Stratos site](http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/). ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/144 "2012-10-14T19:36:11Z")
So where did the balloon go? ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/145 "2012-10-14T19:38:02Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > So where did the balloon go? I don’t know- they showed it coming down under its own parachute, but then they stopped live coverage. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/146 "2012-10-14T20:29:42Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > Press conference starting soon on the [Red Bull Stratos site](http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/). Okay, looks like it’s starting for real now. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/147 "2012-10-14T20:38:38Z")
833.9 mph or Mach 1.24. A new world record! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/148 "2012-10-14T20:42:54Z")
Good to hear! The meter they were showing on screen during his fall didn’t go up nearly that high, so I wasn’t sure if he’d even made it to Mach 1. But they did say that meter wasn’t as accurate, and not the official one. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/149 "2012-10-14T20:47:35Z")
By the way, how do you measure the speed of a high-altitude small object in free fall like that? I read that there are instruments in a chest pack that he wore, but how is his speed actually measured? ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/150 "2012-10-14T20:51:32Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > By the way, how do you measure the speed of a high-altitude small object in free fall like that? I read that there are instruments in a chest pack that he wore, but how is his speed actually measured? Just a guess- I know one of the instruments was a GPS; maybe that was how they determined his speed. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/151 "2012-10-14T21:02:57Z")
Loved the comment from Kittinger- “I’d like to give a one-finger salute to all the people who said Felix was going to come apart when he broke the sound barrier.” ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/152 "2012-10-14T21:09:54Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > Why is the outside temperature rising? It’s gone up almost 10 degrees in the past few thousand feet. > > I was expecting it to be a lot colder up there. He was in the stratosphere; in the stratosphere, temperature actually [rises with altitude](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratosphere#Ozone_and_temperature). ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/153 "2012-10-14T21:22:35Z")
What happens when his balloon bursts? That capsule could kill you if it hit you!:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/154 "2012-10-14T21:54:42Z")
The capsule came down under its own parachute. I don’t know what happened to the balloon itself. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/155 "2012-10-14T22:58:24Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > Loved the comment from Kittinger- “I’d like to give a one-finger salute to all the people who said Felix was going to come apart when he broke the sound barrier.” I’d love to give it to my co-worker, Clueless George, who _pffft_’d my comments about the speed of fall by citing “that pesky terminal velocity”. Fucking know it all pedantrist was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/156 "2012-10-14T23:14:30Z")
Wow, I had no idea that CAPCOM (the only one at Mission Control allowed to talk to Baumgartner) was Kittinger himself. Ultra-cool! ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/157 "2012-10-14T23:49:55Z")
> [@Bumbershoot](#): > > Kittinger is a living legend to skydivers (I used to jump a lot, not so much these days). In fact, he is an advisor to the Red Bull team and will be in Roswell for the jump- at the age of 84! > [@gaffa](#): > > That is because death is _afraid_ of him. I understand that Kittenger served as CAPCOM - the primary link between the ground crew and the capsule. How cool is that? I was watching it on CNN, and have to say their coverage was terrible. The CNN talking heads insisted on keeping up continuous commentary, which meant that you couldn’t hear what was going on. Then, after he opened the capsule door they cut away from the live coverage, apparently afraid of disaster. They resumed live coverage only after his chute opened and stabilized. The live coverage on the Red Bull YouTube site was continuous, and excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/158 "2012-10-14T23:56:12Z")
We he landed, he laded on his balls. They’re so big that they acted as an airbag. ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2012, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/159 "2012-10-14T23:57:29Z")
I’m still in awe. I thought the most amazing view was from right before he jumped. They showed a glimpse of his view and it was…there are no words. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872/160 "2012-10-15T00:03:32Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > We he landed, he laded on his balls. They’re so big that they acted as an airbag. Brass provides little cushioning. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/parachuting-from-23-miles-up/636872.md?page=9)