Space & Astronomy

Felix Baumgartner fell faster than thought

By T.K. Randall
February 6, 2013 ·  14 comments

Image Credit: Red Bull / Youtube Felix Baumgartner made history back in October when he ascended to a height of more than 120,000ft in a special helium balloon before stepping off and plummeting back down to Earth at record breaking speeds. Details obtained at the time of the stunt suggested that Baumgartner had jumped from 128,100ft and hit a maximum speed of 833 miles per hour as he fell, but further analysis has now revealed that his actual height was 127,852.4ft and that his top speed was slightly higher at 843.6mph.

"Together, we proved that a human in freefall can break the speed of sound returning from near space, going through a transonic phase and landing safely on the ground," said medical director Dr Jonathan Clark. "That was a big part of the programme, and monitoring the mission was a meaningful event in aerospace medicine and physiology."[!gad]Felix Baumgartner made history back in October when he ascended to a height of more than 120,000ft in a special helium balloon before stepping off and plummeting back down to Earth at record breaking speeds. Details obtained at the time of the stunt suggested that Baumgartner had jumped from 128,100ft and hit a maximum speed of 833 miles per hour as he fell, but further analysis has now revealed that his actual height was 127,852.4ft and that his top speed was slightly higher at 843.6mph.

"Together, we proved that a human in freefall can break the speed of sound returning from near space, going through a transonic phase and landing safely on the ground," said medical director Dr Jonathan Clark. "That was a big part of the programme, and monitoring the mission was a meaningful event in aerospace medicine and physiology."

Source: BBC News | Comments (14)

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