In 2010, Red Bull Stratos will see Felix Baumgartner skydive from the edge of space in order to surpass limits that have stood for 50 years. Luck will need to be on his side – so here are some Lucky Numbers…
120,000...
Felix Baumgartner will attempt to break the long-standing record for the highest ever parachute jump – ascending in a pressurised gondola attached to a high-altitude balloon to a mind-boggling minimum of 120,000ft (36.5km). To put that into context, Mount Everest stands at 29,000ft (8.84km) – Baumgartner will go far beyond Mother Earth’s limits – while a commercial aircraft flies at 35,000ft (10.6km). The current mark, 102,800ft (31.3km), is held by now-retired United States Air Force Colonel Joseph Kittinger, and Frenchman Michel Fournier made the most recent attempt to better it in 2008, only to see his balloon break free just as he was about to climb into the ascent capsule.
1960...
Kittinger’s brief was simple – to establish the potential for a human to survive in space. Project Excelsior I saw Kittinger jump from 76,400ft (23.3km) before his ’chute was triggered too early, sending him into a spin and causing the lines to wrap around his neck as he lost consciousness. Only the automatic reserve parachute saved him. Less than a month later, Kittinger jumped from 74,700ft (22.8km) and landed safely before, on August 16, 1960, he successfully reached his goal of jumping from above 100,000ft (30.5km). The American’s death-defying mission paved the way for manned space programmes, while Baumgartner hopes the data collected from his journey into the atmosphere will make it possible to bring astronauts back to Earth alive if their vehicle malfunctions.
1,100...
Kittinger set four world records that day in 1960: the fastest freefall (982kph/614mph), longest freefall (four minutes, 36 seconds), highest parachute jump (102,800ft/31.3km) and highest manned balloon flight (102,800ft). The first three still stand today, while the final mark has been raised to 113,740ft (34.7km). Baumgartner will attempt to smash all four, but, not content with that, will have his eye on one further barrier – to become the first human in history to break the speed of sound in freefall. Thirty-five seconds into his flight, Baumgartner is expected to exceed Mach 1.0 (340.29m/s/1,116.44ft/s), travelling at over 1,100kph (690mph)
-70...
In one respect, Baumgartner has nature on his side, as, the higher you go into the stratosphere, the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere, temperatures rise. When he jumps, the temperature will be a balmy -23ºC – but, as he descends into the troposphere, he will have to withstand temperatures as low as -70ºC. Fortunately for Baumgartner, he will be wearing a full pressure suit which has been in development and testing for 36 months and will protect him from the extreme cold.
5:30...
Baumgartner’s suit will also protect him from the intense pressure. Without it, the gases in his blood would expand dangerously above 62,000ft (18.9km), a term popularly, if inaccurately, described as boiling. After jumping from almost 37km (23 miles) above the Earth and reaching the speed of sound, Baumgartner will be hurtling downwards at more than 17.5km – that’s 11 miles – per minute. His overall freefall time will be approximately five minutes, 30 seconds, smashing Kittinger’s record by nearly a minute.
2003...
And so it all boils down to one question: who would be crazy enough to tackle such a feat in the name of science? Nothing will prepare Baumgartner for his experience from 120,000ft/36.5km, but his resumé remains impressive reading and he is perhaps best known for performing the first winged freefall across the English Channel in 2003. A licensed helicopter and balloon pilot, the 40-year-old has become one of the world’s most respected professional BASE jumpers and skydivers. In 1999 alone, Baumgartner BASE jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, then the world’s tallest building at 1,479ft (450m), before setting a world record for the lowest BASE jump, 95ft (29m) from the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The numbers this time out, however, are on a different level altogether…
Keep track of the numbers at redbullstratos.com
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