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120,000ft Skydiver Felix Baumgartner set to break sound barrier
Slater - 9/10/12 at 01:39 PM

This chap should have just taken off in his balloon, he's going up to 120,000ft in 2 1/2 hrs and will jump out about 16:30 BST.

A very brave man! Good luck to him. I hope he lands safely. The record for high altitude skydiving has stood since 1960.

linker to BBC news

steve m - 9/10/12 at 01:51 PM

"A very brave man!"

Darwin award contender more like

blakep82 - 9/10/12 at 01:52 PM

try getting it from the horses mouth, not due to launch the balloon til 5.30 at the earliest now...
http://www.redbullstratos.com/live/

been delayed and delayed again since the original time of a 1.30 launch

steve m - 9/10/12 at 02:01 PM

Earliest is 1730gmt, so 1830 uk time

blakep82 - 9/10/12 at 02:13 PM

quote:
Originally posted by steve m
Earliest is 1730gmt, so 1830 uk time


oh yeah! i was watching it earlier, and it would say 13.30gmt, and then at 13.25 our time it would disappear, and at 13.30 it came up saying 14.00gmt, which then changed again at 13.55, so i forgot about gmt, and assumed they were all ready, but decided like 5 minutes before the weather wasn't right. i guess it was really an hour before then.
although at 13.20, on the news they seemed to think it was just about to happen too... weird


but then, america doesn't seem to realise we are NOT always on GMT. they seem to think whatever time we are on is GMT, so whatever they say its taking off in GMT, is our time

[Edited on 9/10/12 by blakep82]

The Shootist - 9/10/12 at 04:44 PM

"but then, america doesn't seem to realise we are NOT always on GMT. they seem to think whatever time we are on is GMT, so whatever they say its taking off in GMT, is our time"

As we are a somewhat large land mass, we have multiple time zones. ALL aviation times are posted as GMT or "Zulu Time" to avoid confusion, so no it's got nothing to do with assuming all Brits are on GMT.

The big issue today is the "Balloon Top" winds. That Balloon is 700 ft tall in takeoff configuration, and as of this morning winds at 800 ft were 20 miles per hour.

[Edited on 10/9/12 by The Shootist]

BenB - 9/10/12 at 05:19 PM

Well it's now saying launch at 11:15 MDT and it's 11:19 MDT

BenB - 9/10/12 at 05:43 PM

Borrocks, they just scratched it for today because it got too windy.

The Shootist - 9/10/12 at 05:47 PM

Wind gusted up and pressed the entire 100-150 feet of balloon they had inflated all the way to the ground.

Can't blame them for the scratch, the envelope is 1/10th the thickness of a party balloon. 1 tiny little nick, a failure aloft, and I'm not sure he could escape the capsule in time.

Ninehigh - 9/10/12 at 09:57 PM

Well with something like that you don't want to have an "ah it'll be alright" attitude!

The Shootist - 10/10/12 at 03:05 AM

Amazing that they were able to assemble enough gas to lift a set of balls that big.

rusty nuts - 10/10/12 at 07:17 PM

No wonder Helium gas is getting difficult to get these days!