Posted on 10/14/2012 7:48:40 AM PDT by Vince Ferrer
There will be a second attempt today for Felix to jump from a ballon at 120,000 feet and parachute, breaking the record for high altitude jumps. There should be a live feed on the website.
He is delayed in response because he was probably saying the biggest prayer of his life.
Helium is an element. It is produced by the fusion of Hydrogen inside a star.
Exactly...just STFU CNN talking heads!
External video shots from the GROUND show the balloon is now a huge round ball. With no air pressure it has expanded from the long tear drop shape at launch.
Going thru egress check list still, moving seat to forward position so he can get out the door...
127,800ft altitude
Now switching to portable oxygen tanks, checking pressure...good.
Yes, I know, but the earth is not a star.
I don’t what nuclear fission reactions produce helium, nor the theory about why/how there is helium trapped in the earth’s shell. Now you have my curiosity aroused ;-)
wonder if he has second thoughts?
Disc HD just has the ground crew and capsule audio
DEPRESSURIZING capsule part way...to 40,000 ft apparent altitude. His pressure suit should be working now...
Timer on YouTube broadcast, or at least on the www.redbullstratos.com/live site, is running about 70 seconds behind the one on Discovery Channel.
Damn CNN...SHUT UP!
Helium is not produced by the Earth. It is merely present on the Earth like oxygen, carbon etc.
Old Joe is pretty sharp for 84 yrs old.
He spent 11 months in the Hanoi Hilton.
Ahhh ... wiki says ...
Most terrestrial helium present today is created by the natural radioactive decay of heavy radioactive elements (thorium and uranium), as the alpha particles emitted by such decays consist of helium-4 nuclei. This radiogenic helium is trapped with natural gas in concentrations up to 7% by volume, from which it is extracted commercially by a low-temperature separation process called fractional distillation.
The suit is working.
Now depressuring cabin to external atmosphere...0.07 psi or 0.001 bar...
Coming up on 2h30mins elapsed time...127,900 ft.
Go to the Discovery channel. Less chatter.
It was reported Felix had a severe claustrophobic reaction when he put on his pressure suit for the first time. So bad he actually left the town and flew home to Austria. He did not know how he could make this jump. But he practiced and concentrated very hard to get over it. He has to control a lot of fear right now, even more than others would in the same position.
what a guy!
That woman on CNN just can’t zip it longer than 5 seconds
Looks like the Michelein man ... or the Sta-Puft marshmallow man from ghostbusters.
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