Jumping From Near Space
Record-breaking 135,908-ft Space Dive Sets Stage for Future of Space Travel
Paragon Completes Record-Breaking Near-Space Dive Via High-Altitude Balloon
“Today, after 34 months of intense planning, development and training, Alan Eustace, supported by Paragon Space Development CorporationĀ (Paragon) and its Stratospheric Explorer (StratEx) team, made history with a near-space dive from a high-altitude balloon at approximately 135,000 feet. Eustace broke several records, including national record for highest exit altitude; world and national record for free fall under a drogue chute; national record for vertical speed. Additionally, he became the second person to break the sound barrier outside an aircraft.”
It is strange to me that this has gotten nowhere near the attention that Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting jump got.
According to the BBC story, he paid for the whole thing himself and didn’t make a big deal about it. With funding from sponsors, I guess Baumgartner had to make his jump a media event. Sponsors generally want that sort of thing.
he must have hired the same PR people that publicize NASA work
This is very cool. Not a big stunt, not sponsored, someone just going out to push the envelope a bit. I’m sure he had fun, and isn’t that a good reason for doing something.
Amazing! No capsule on balloon. Just a balloon and a spacesuit. A ride up to 25 miles high and a perfect jump. Wow! All planned and performed in secret. Google it! š
The ultimate result of all of this, a jump from 100 km and then maybe a jump from orbit. The 100 km wouldn’t be from a balloon. Maybe a jump from a sub-orbital spaceplane at apogee? Some kind of minimal heat shield, etc. That type of thing is science fiction today, maybe science fact tomorrow?
Alan Eustace and Paragon Space DC (StratEx) kept a very strict secrecy on this project. Very few outside of the team knew about the project or its progress.
Job well done! Can’t wait for the video!
More than a stunt, it ‘s good to know you can bail out of your catastrophically failing spacecraft at 140,000 feet and survive. Oh by the way , didn’t the earliest Soviet cosmonauts–Gagarin , Titov et al — actually parachute out of their Voshkods at first ?
That is correct all six Vostok (not Voskhod) flights, Gagarin through Tereshkova the cosmonaut ejected at about 20,000 feet. In fact Valentina Tereshkova was selected in part because she was an experienced skydiver.
After Tereshkova the next two Soviet spaceflights were in a modified version of Vostok known as Voskhod which included a landing rocket that fired at the last second, same concept as what is used on Soyuz. The ejection seat was removed to allow room for three cosmonauts without spacesuits (Voskhod 1) and two spacesuited astronauts for the world’s first spacewalk by Alexei Leonov (Voskhod 2)
It’s not the altitude that can kill you during reentry. It’s the velocity (i.e. aero-thermal heating). This is why SpaceShip One didn’t need the same thermal protection that the space shuttle needed.
It’s just business. The customer did not want it announced ahead of time. It really is just that simple.
I was going to say the same thing. Trust me, we all wanted to tell the world what we were up to. Besides, if it were some sort of conspiracy, the NYtimes would not have been invited to the launch with an embargoed story until after launch.
Simple, so they can bury this event in the back pages in case of bad outcome.
What he said.
I think that this is just plain cool. When compared to Baumgartner’s jump: Minimalist design — zero commercial hype – and no post-jump neo-fascist political statements by the jumper.
If you are going to jump out and fall 26 miles and hit something other than the Earth, that would be news!