UPDATE: Felix Baumgartner Red Bull Stratos Sunday Jump Time Watch the Red Bull Stratos jump live online here as Felix Baumgartner will attempt to ascend to 120,000 feet in a stratospheric balloon and make a freefall jump rushing toward earth at supersonic speeds before parachuting to the ground. Felix Baumgartner attempt to dare atmospheric limits holds the potential to provide valuable medical and scientific research data for future pioneers.
Red Bull Stratos Jump UPDATE:
Wind conditions improved. 30 million cubic foot balloon is being laid out. Felix Baumgartner’s suit up procedure is complete.
Felix Baumgartner enters the capsule. Inflation has officially begun.
Felix Baumgartner gets raised into the capsule.
“I am strapped into the capsule, and I am ready to go.” Felix Baumgartner to Joe Kittinger in Mission Control.
The launch time of the Red Bull Stratos jump is scheduled for 1:15 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time / 11:15 a.m. Mountain Daylight Time / 10:15 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time.
The Red Bull Stratos jump team brings together the world’s leading minds in aerospace medicine, engineering, pressure suit development, capsule creation and balloon fabrication. It includes retired United States Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, who holds three of the records Felix will strive to break.
Joe’s record jump from 102,800 ft in 1960 was during a time when no one knew if a human could survive a jump from the edge of space. Joe was a Captain in the U.S. Air Force and had already taken a balloon to 97,000 feet in Project ManHigh and survived a drogue mishap during a jump from 76,400 feet in Excelsior I. The Excelsior III mission was his 33rd parachute jump.
Although researching extremes was part of the program’s goals, setting records wasn’t the mission’s purpose. Joe ascended in helium balloon launched from the back of a truck. He wore a pressurized suit on the way up in an open, unpressurized gondola. Scientific data captured from Joe’s jump was shared with U.S. research personnel for development of the space program. Today Felix and his specialized team hope to take what was learned from Joe’s jumps more than 50 years ago and press forward to test the edge of the human envelope.
PHOTO: Red Bull
Livestream: Discovery Channel