What is Digg?112 Comments
- captinherb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+54I can't imagine the cahoones this guy has. He sat in that damn balloon for 3 hours knowing he was going to jump out over 18.5 miles above the earth, I get woozy looking out the window of a tall building.
- HP844182, on 10/12/2007, -0/+46...did something amazing. He jumped.
Guy: oooohhhh shiittttt! - bryanjones, on 10/12/2007, -1/+39The heat from re-entry is caused from the compression of air, not friction. It's the exact same effect that your refrigerator uses, when it expands freon gas, but in reverse.
- captinherb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+35sorry but you are as alone as a guy in a balloon 30 kilometers above the earth
- Dimah, on 10/12/2007, -0/+33You know what I'm supprised about? That more people don't do this. The view was amazing and it was probably cheaper than those Virgin Space flights people are going to pay big bucks for.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+32ONLY 14 MINUTES?
Falling that would be like an eternity lol. - nesibus, on 10/12/2007, -5/+38Why would he burn up in the atmosphere?
The only reason the shuttle burns on reentry is cause its hitting the thin air at over 15,000mph.
The man reached a free fall speed of over 700...no where near enough to produce lots of friction. - masgrada, on 10/12/2007, -2/+33He was afraid to jump at lower altitudes until the thought of floating into space crossed his mind...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+28That dude is a serious badass.
On a side note, Boards of Canada uses a lot of this footage in one of their videos. I think it's called Davyan Cowboy. - wvannus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+28I met Kittinger last summer. What an absolutely amazing guy.
He is definitely one of the figures history forgot. - SavageOwnage, on 10/12/2007, -1/+23I think its safe to say he landed on earth.
- iwhitney, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21Terimnal velocity depends on air resistance. Where he jumped from had little to no air resistance.
- eridius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21"I'm surprised that his body wasn't torn apart when he deployed the parachute."
You guys do realize that he let the air decelerate himself before he deployed the parachute, right? This means by the time he deployed his parachute, he was falling at about 120mph, which is terminal velocity for a human in normal skydiving free-fall position with a closed parachute.
In other words, when he deployed his parachute, he was just like any other skydiver. - chall2001, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20I love the cowboy attitude they had toward scientific experiments back then. These days they would send up some probe loaded with sensors---YAWN...
I can imagine the conversation they had leading up to this--
We're pretty sure you can't feel gravity in space but we need to be sure. Hey Joe, how about we load you on a tiny platform hung from a weather balloon? After you reach the edge of space we need you to jump off and tell us how it feels. - storm8956, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20yeah. it's a sweet music video. here's a link...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7451064378458599055&q=dayvan+cowboy - Crockpot, on 10/12/2007, -13/+31Absolutely amazing! I'm surprise he didn't just burn up in the atmosphere!
- lazlonger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Well then I, for one, am REALLY glad it was reposted.
What a guy. I am in awe. Truly astounding guts. - bonyicecream, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13I severely want to link that PBF comic, but pbfcomics.com is down! arrrr!
ok, found it on ytmnd and imageshacked it since finding the image link on ytmnd is a pain...
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/7363/snowflakeci9.jpg - DjOverEZ, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14I was seriously getting nervous watching this video, thinking about how high he was and jumping!
- jaxxon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Where did he land???
- dziban303, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I read about this a few months ago. I think the glove joint on his space suit lost its seal, so his hand decompressed and swoll to twice its size. I think it only took him like 14 minutes from jumping to landing. Incredibly cool.
- Phlag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I don't think that's really what people admire Kittinger for. He's not brave because of the sensation of falling he may or may not have had. He's brave because they weren't even that sure that the balloon would carry him to his top altitude safely. He's brave because he was the first person to exit the earth's atmosphere, all whilst wearing a relatively untested prototype space suit, paving the way for the rest of the world's space exploration. He's brave because his glove malfunctioned, but he chose not to notify the team back on land because they'd cancel the mission and he wasn't sure that he'd ever get this opportunity again. And in deciding not to tell them, he thought that he might LOSE that goddamn hand. But he went through with it anyway.
And THEN he jumped. But there were so many praise-worthy things Kittinger did that came before that jump. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I was just thinking that, but obviously the air is thinner.
- aknowles5139, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9shut up about the dupes... we know it was already submitted. It was good then and its still good now.
Even though most of us have already seen it, theres alot of people that haven't seen it. Give them a chance. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10My god that is the most frightening footage ever. Falling at mach one has to loosen your bowels a little. That man has balls of steel.
- mc7winkie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Terminal velocity is only based on air resistance. He jumped at an altitude where the air was so thin and had relatively little friction. If you listened in the video he didn't open his parachute until he was at the lower altitudes ,with thicker air, when he would be traveling at about 120 miles per hour.
- digitalintrigue, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Not trying to take anything away from this guy or the feat itself, but jumping from 100,000 feet isn't much different than jumping from 10,000. When you skydive, there isn't a sensation of falling...it's like you are still (except for the rush of wind) and the earth rushes up to meet you. It's not like your stomach is in your mouth during the entire fall.
I don't have a fear of heights when at 10,000 feet looking out the door of a plane, but 100 feet in a tower looking over the edge freaks me out. Anyone else feel the same thing? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That would suck (the hand thing) but the view would be awesome.
- Revadarth, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10I'm more surprised that his parachute didn't rip. Those things must be able to take a lot of punishment. Imagine how much momentum that guy had from going that fast and then stopping suddenly.
- Barlo_Mung, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Blacked out? wow. Can you imagine waking back up.
"wow, I was just having the craziest dream. I dreamed I'd jumped from a weather balloon at the edge of space. hmm, what's that sound of rushing air? Oh yeah, I just jumped from a weather balloon at the edge of space." - ryan4477, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6kind of makes falling out of a tree and bragging about it seem...stupid.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think that video is better than the original link.
- nesibus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6If he would have opened it when he jumped....nothing would have happened....there was no air to help pull it out....it would have probably wrapped around his body, he was in an uncontrollable tumble cause of such thin air.
- Tocc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6The air is lighter so it doesnt produce as much air friction to oppose gravity.
- CorDawg, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8From Google
speed of sound at sea level = 340.29 m / s
1 meters per second = 3.6 kilometers per hour
1225.044 km/h is the speed of sound - nipterink, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6not to mention the speed of sound is approx. 1200 km/h.
- Glidedon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yep, I get nervous on my roof, but not so much flying my paraglider off mountain tops.
- Barlo_Mung, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@nipterink
"not to mention the speed of sound is approx. 1200 km/h."
Not at that altitude. It's more like 800 km/h. Sound travels slower in thinner air. - iamnotaminor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5now i want to go skydiving
- JoeCool1986, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It would've sucked to have jumped out, and then realize that you were neither falling towards the earth or floating away and had in fact gone into orbit. You probably would say "oh, sh**" for about two hours as your air supply ran out.
(I know that's really not even possible, but the idea of it is rather funny to me) - rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It's worth pointing out that the speed of sound at 100,000 feet would be about 3/4 the speed of sound at sea level. Anybody have the formula for converting mach to kph?
- lswinney, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4If his suit had decompressed, he would have had balls the size of cantaloupes.
- Wisgary, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What if he had opened his chute as soon as he jumped? How far off would that have taken him, and how long would it have taken for him to land. That would be awesome if he ended up in like Europe or something.
- giraldus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like the comment at the end about how gravity did him no harm. Of course it didn't. Gravity never does anyone any harm. It is the hard stuff -- like the ground -- you bump into on your way down that do you harm.
Oh by the way, the speed of sound is not a fixed number; it depends on temperature; see the Wikipedia article for details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound - badbrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He used a multistage parachute (I can't recall how many). And, I believe that he broke his leg on landing.
- voyage34, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Digg for BoC. Awesome song and video
- iceluigi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5So was he able to accelerate to that velocity because the air resistance was much less at that altitude right? I did hear her say that once he hit the thicker air he decelerated.
- kamikazecow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4 (insert 3 second pause) HHHHOOOOOLLLLLLLYYYYY SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!!!!!!!
- nesibus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Ok..that was just stupid and ignorant to make a comment like that, which has no business or relation to this story.
- ebs16, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5@Revadarth
I'm surprised that his body wasn't torn apart when he deployed the parachute. -
Show 51 - 100 of 112 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 