Red Bull Stratos

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Felix Baumgartner

The Red Bull Stratos project was a parachute jump from the stratosphere from a height of almost 40 km, which was carried out on October 14, 2012 by the Austrian base jumper and extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner and which broke several aeronautical world records. The project was mainly sponsored by the Austrian beverage manufacturer Red Bull and supported logistically and with technical expertise by NASA and the US Air Force .

background

Jump from Joseph Kittinger , 1960

The Stratos project followed up on the jumps of the Excelsior project , which were carried out in 1959 and 1960 by the US military pilot Joseph Kittinger . The aim of these three jumps was the development of parachute systems for high and high-speed combat aircraft. In contrast to the Excelsior project, Stratos focused heavily on media attention for the sponsor due to the desired world records.

Excelsior III

On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped from a height of 31,333 meters above sea level and set four world records, three of which were still unbroken in 2012:

  • Highest balloon ride with open gondola: 31,333 m,
  • Highest speed of a person without a special protective cover: 988 km / h,
  • Longest free fall in a parachute jump: 4 minutes and 36 seconds.

Kittinger's fourth record for the highest height of fall in free fall had already been exceeded on November 1, 1962. On this day, the Soviet parachutist Yevgeny Andreyev jumped from 25,458 m above the city of Volsk and opened the parachute at a height of 958 meters:

  • Maximum height of fall in free fall: 24,500 m.

Kittinger's record for the longest free fall was still in 2018. However, unlike Baumgartner, Kittinger had used a stabilizing parachute.

Stratos project

Mission logo

Objectives of the project

The plan was to reach the stratosphere in a pressure capsule on a helium balloon and to jump off with a pressure suit and parachute. The aim was to break five records that have been in force since the 1960s and to collect technical and medical data, among other things in order to gain knowledge about the possibility of an emergency exit from spacecraft and to increase the safety of future space travelers.

Planned world records

  • Highest manned balloon flight: Planned was at least 36,576 m (120,000  ft ).
  • Largest jump height: the plan was at least 36,576 m.
  • Longest time in free fall: 5 minutes and 35 seconds were planned.
  • Longest distance in free fall: at least 34.5 km were planned,
    Baumgartner should open his parachute around 1.5 km above the ground.
  • Highest speed achieved in free fall: Planned was at least 1100 km / h (supersonic speed).

Purpose and team

According to Red Bull, the purpose of the mission was not to set the records; instead, the scientific benefit had priority, as was the attempt to “inspire people to dare great things”.

The following specialists were involved in the project:

  • Colonel Joseph 'Joe' Kittinger . He became Baumgartner's mentor and, during the many years of preparation, also his “foster father” in this project.
  • Art Thompson, co-founder of Sage Cheshire Aerospace, project manager.
  • John Clark, medical director.
  • Don Day, meteorologist.
  • Luke Aikins , skydiver and photographer. A considerable part of the safety precautions regarding the feared flat spin goes on his account .
  • Ed Coca, head of the balloon team, responsible for the launch.

Preparation for the jump

Since the internal pressure of the suit has to be reduced during the ascent, which is scheduled for around three hours, in order to ensure a minimum of mobility when exiting and in free fall, the jumper already breathes pure oxygen two hours before entering the capsule, thereby exhaling nitrogen exhales from the body. Otherwise, the low pressure would cause nitrogen to bubble out in the tissue and blood vessels, which leads to the same damage as decompression sickness when diving.

technology

Pressure capsule

Pressure capsule, exhibited in Hangar-7 in Salzburg

The pressurized capsule, manufactured by Sage Cheshire Aerospace and weighing around 1315 kg when fully loaded, was presented to the public in early March 2012. It consists of the following main components:

  • The pressure ball with a diameter of around 1.8 m is made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic and is painted fire-proof. The door and windows are made of acrylic . The interior contains the instrumentation, three cameras and the custom-made pilot's chair. In order to reduce the stress on the pilot, the pressure is kept at around 0.55 bar until shortly before disembarking, which is around 4900 m above sea level .
  • A frame made of welded chrome-molybdenum steel tubes is used to suspend the capsule, encloses the pressure ball and carries arms for the external cameras.
  • The shell is made of GRP-coated insulating foam. It encloses the pressure ball and the cage, is 3.35 m high and has a base diameter of 2.44 m.
  • The domed capsule base is designed to help stabilize the capsule during the descent. It consists of a 5 cm thick aluminum honeycomb sandwich, which is supposed to protect the capsule from damage by sharp rocks on landing and at the same time forms a jump platform and mounting platform for heavy equipment such as control elements and batteries. Below this base is a thick layer of padding made of plastic-soaked paper honeycomb, which has been designed to absorb forces of up to 8  g and is replaced after each landing. More than 150 drop tests have been carried out, according to Red Bull. The concept proved itself in the crash landing after Baumgartner's second test jump.

The ascent capsule is exhibited in various museums and could be seen in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington and in the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance .

Helium balloon

The balloons used for ascent correspond to those used for research purposes; for higher summits they have to be considerably more voluminous, so smaller balloons are sufficient for the test jumps. For the two identical models that were made for the record attempt, high-strength polyethylene film with a thickness of 0.02032 mm was welded.

The preparation time of such a balloon for the start is calculated with up to 8 hours, 45 to 60 minutes of which is for filling with about 5000 cubic meters of helium (at ground pressure). In this condition the balloon envelope is limp and about 170 m high; the total height (balloon, below the parachute, below the pressure capsule) is about 212 m. At the planned jump height of 36,500 m, the height of the balloon is around 102 m with a diameter of 129 m and a volume of around 850,000 cubic meters due to the expansion. In order to prevent the balloon from bursting after exceeding the intended summit height, safety valves are installed.

Exactly ten times the amount of gas was required to surpass Kitinger’s record height by 5000 meters, as the weight of the Stratos capsule far exceeded that of Kitter’s open nacelle.

Development stages of the project

Baumgartner said several times that he had prepared for his last extreme jump seven years; on the part of Red Bull, the preliminary work is given as five years. In 2010, the base jumper Daniel Hogan sued a Californian court for several million US dollars in damages because he had proposed the idea and worked out details for Red Bull over a long period of time, and that ultimately the concept of the stratospheric jump, which was worth millions in advertising had been stolen. The dispute was settled out of court in June 2011.

The first manned test flight of the pressure capsule took place on March 15, 2012 in Roswell , New Mexico (USA), where a ground station had been set up. Baumgartner jumped from 21,800 m, reached a speed of 587 km / h, his free fall lasted three minutes and 33 seconds. The capsule, which was then empty, initially rose further, was then separated from the balloon at a height of around 30 km as planned (after Baumgartner's landing) and landed on the parachute, the balloon envelope was also torn open as planned and sank to the ground. One problem with this jump was the cold: Baumgartner could hardly move his hands.

Baumgartner completed the second test jump on July 25, 2012, this time from a height of 30,000 m. This time the capsule's parachute did not open completely, the capsule hit at 80 km / h and was damaged in the process, which led to the postponement of the record jump planned for August.

The record jump was planned for October 8, 2012, but then postponed for a day due to the weather. On October 9, however, a gust of wind pushed the balloon to the ground just before take-off, which could not rule out damage. A start was classified as too risky and canceled.

The record jump

This was carried out on October 14, 2012 - coincidentally on the 65th anniversary of the first supersonic flight. The start of the balloon, originally scheduled for 6:00 a.m. local time, 2:00 p.m. Central European Summer Time , had to be postponed several times due to strong winds. The meteorologist Don Day, who was primarily responsible for the starting time, last calculated a time window from 09:20 a.m. to 09:40 a.m. the clearance was given by the leader of the balloon team, Ed Coca. The capsule was released at 9:31 a.m. local time.

As expected, the balloon exceeded the previously rumored "target height" of 120,000 feet / 36,576 m. At 12:07 p.m. local time, Felix Baumgartner jumped 38,969.4 meters (127,852.4 feet) after saying the following words:

“I know the whole world is watching now. I wish you could see what I can see. Sometimes you have to be up really high to understand how small you are… I'm going home now. "

“I know the whole world is watching now. If only you could see what I see! Sometimes you have to go really far up to see how small you are ... I'm going home now. "

- Felix Baumgartner

Baumgartner reached 1,357.6 km / h in free fall. This makes him the first person to exceed the speed of sound in free fall. As expected, the jumper temporarily lost control of his flight position, namely over a period of a little more than 40 seconds. His safety system would have automatically triggered the stabilization screen if a predetermined centrifugal force had been continuously exceeded for six seconds during these rotations (assuming that a person would then no longer be able to react accordingly; manual release of the stabilization screen was possible at any time). Baumgartner narrowly missed this status twice. However, the stabilization screen would have slowed the jump so far that the speed of sound would not have been reached. After 4:20 minutes in free fall, Baumgartner pulled the parachute 1585 meters above the ground as planned and landed around five minutes later, at 12:16 local time, safely and unharmed around 70 km east of the starting point. A helicopter brought him back to Walker Air Force Base .

Immediately after the jump, Baumgartner said he briefly feared losing consciousness during the critical phase. He had "tried a lot", especially with the use of his arms, to achieve a stable flight position, which he succeeded about a minute and a half after the jump.

Felix Baumgartner set new world records with this project: Some of these records were broken around two years later by Alan Eustace's jump from over 41,000 meters.

Record category achieved value planned value previous record previous record holder previous record date
highest manned balloon flight 39,068.5 m 36,576 m 34,668 m
37,643 m		 Ross / Prather
Nicholas Piantanida 		May 4, 1961
February 2, 1966
highest jump of a parachute jump 38,969.4 m 36,576 m 31,333 m Joseph Kittinger August 16, 1960
highest speed in free fall without a stabilizing screen 1357.6 km / h
( Mach 1.25)		 1100 km / h 864 km / h
 Felix Baumgartner July 25, 2012
greatest speed in free fall ever 1357.6 km / h
( Mach 1.25)		 1100 km / h 988 km / h Joseph Kittinger August 16, 1960
longest free fall (height difference) 36,402.6 m 34,500 m 24,500 m Yevgeny Andreyev November 1, 1962
longest free fall without a stabilizing screen (duration) 4:20 min 5:35 min ? ? ?
longest free fall ever (duration) 4:20 min - 4:36 min Joseph Kittinger August 16, 1960

Remarks:

  1. ↑ No official world record of the FAI, as the FAI only recognizes balloon flights for this record category in which the balloonists land safely on the ground again with the balloon. Baumgartner landed with the parachute and not again safely with the balloon.
  2. ^ Official world record of the FAI.
  3. ↑ No official world record of the FAI, as the FAI only recognizes balloon flights for this record category in which the balloonists land safely on the ground again with the balloon. But Piantanida did not land safely with the balloon again. Like Baumgartner, he wanted to jump off with the parachute. Due to technical problems, the capsule with Piantanida on board was separated from the balloon. While the balloon was lost, the capsule landed on the ground using a braking parachute . In another record attempt on May 1, 1966, Piantanida fell into a coma from which he never woke: QinetQ Flight by Tim Baggett. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  4. ↑ a b c Recognized as an official world record by the International Aeronautical Association (FAI) : Baumgartners Records Ratified by FAI! (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on March 14, 2013 ; Retrieved October 25, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fai.org
  5. ↑ a b No official world record of the FAI, as this only records records with regard to fall distance, but not with regard to fall duration.
  6. ↑ Joseph Kittinger used - in contrast to Baumgartner - a stabilizing umbrella which, as a side effect, also slowed down the jump and thus increased the time it took to fall.

Such records must be checked by the national association, here: Austrian Aero Club (ÖAeC), based on the data , regardless of the location of the record attempt . Since they were "officially" forwarded to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and confirmed on February 22, 2013, they are considered "officially recognized".

media

Around 200 television stations and networks reported live from the event, including in the German-speaking region the Salzburg company, Red Bull-financed channels ServusTV, as well as ORF eins and n-tv . Servus TV, which reported live for over ten hours, and n-tv were able to post new station records in terms of audience ratings . The ORF achieved the highest rate since the first TV interview with Natascha Kampusch in 2006. The project thus became a media event, especially in Baumgartner's home country Austria . With over three million viewers on ORF and Servus TV, the jump was the most watched live event since the introduction of the Teletest .

The live stream offered by the video portal YouTube was viewed by around eight million people at the same time. A new high was reached. To date, the live stream of the inauguration of the President of the United States Barack Obama in 2009, offered by the Internet service Akamai , had the highest reach with around seven million viewers. In the days after the jump, numerous montages were created based on the YouTube video, such as B. a replica with Lego figures or pictures with cats .

The Stratos project is therefore considered to be the most successful owned media project to date . Company founder Dietrich Mateschitz stated the cost of the project to be less than 25 million euros, while Austrian advertising experts estimated the advertising value at 1 billion euros.

Web links

Commons : Red Bull Stratos  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b 50 million euros for a jump. In: Die Presse - print edition. October 10, 2012, accessed November 5, 2012 .
  2. ↑ a b The cost of the jump of 50 million euros was originally rumored from the time . Red Bull does not comment on it, but, independently of each other, Baumgartner and the person primarily responsible, Thompson, denied it, see e.g. B. Print edition of the Kurier of October 28, 2012, page 14: "50 million euros is way over the top," said Art Thompson.
  3. ↑ Bernd Graff: "A crash without an example". Süddeutsche Zeitung, August 16, 2008, accessed on October 14, 2012 .
  4. ↑ a b c d High Altitude World Record Jumps
  5. ^ Rob Bardua: Aviation pioneer to make special appearance at the National Museum of the US Air Force. (No longer available online.) In: Factsheet. National Museum of the US Air Force, archived from the original on December 25, 2010 ; accessed on September 10, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalmuseum.af.mil
  6. ↑ Андреев Евгений Николаевич , warheroes.ru
  7. ↑ Ticker review: Exciting until the end - the jump at 8:04 p.m. In: Die Presse - Online. Retrieved October 15, 2012 .
  8. ^ Vann RD (ed) .: The Physiological Basis of Decompression . In: 38th Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society Workshop. . UHMS Publication Number 75 (Phys) 6-1-89., 1989, p. 437. Retrieved November 5, 2012.
  9. ↑ Before field operations (EVA, ExtraVehicular Activity), astronauts also go through the same procedure of “pre-breathing”, the pre-breathing of pure oxygen: EVA Safety, Space Suit Systems Interoperability. . In: IAA Position Paper. . 1996, p. 20. Retrieved November 5, 2012. The 20-page document deals with the compatibility of US and Russian spacesuits.
  10. ↑ Baumgartner - capsule for Stratos jump presented diepresse.com from March 6, 2012, accessed on November 5, 2012.
  11. ↑ THE CAPSULE WILL PROTECT FELIX… redbullstratos.com, accessed on November 5, 2012 (English).
  12. ↑ http://www.aerokurier.de/luftsport/baumgartners-stratosphaerenausruestung-im-zeppelin-museum/685700
  13. ↑ "Technical data of the balloon". Red Bull, accessed November 5, 2012 .
  14. ↑ ... court dispute settled Oberösterreichische Nachrichten , nachrichten.at, accessed on November 5, 2012.
  15. ↑ "That was the right motivation" , Michael Frühmann for sport.orf.at, March 16, 2012, accessed on November 5, 2012.
  16. ↑ Austrian jumps from a height of 30 kilometers. spiegel.de, accessed on November 5, 2012.
    Note: In order not to let the capsule fall too far from the control center, the parachute opens in two steps, first in a reefed state. The reefing line is only cut automatically at a pre-set height and the full size of the umbrella is released. This failed in the second test.
  17. ↑ ntv
  18. ↑ Note 1: There are three particularly critical phases during the ascent: Firstly, below 300–500 m above ground, there is no rescue system, so that a bursting of the shell in this area would be fatal; Secondly, in the area of ​​the jet streams at around 10,000-18,000 m, extreme turbulence can damage the balloon envelope; thirdly, if the height of the summit is exceeded and the safety valves fail at the same time (e.g. due to icing), the shell would burst.
  19. ↑ Note 2: According to the balloonist and two-time Austrian state champion Andreas Simoner in the courier of October 10, 2012, the gust was the result of the detachment of a warm air bubble, probably triggered by the filming helicopter: You had "gambled very high", the start up to to move the noon hours.
  20. ↑ Chuck Yeager , test pilot of the US Air Force, broke the sound barrier for the first time on October 14, 1947 with a Bell X-1 , which under the prevailing conditions was 1060 km / h. Yeagers X-1 reached 1080 km / h.
  21. ↑ a b Red Bulletin, November 2012.
  22. ↑ Felix Baumgartner landed after a record
  23. ↑ telegraph.co.uk: Felix Baumgartner: Daredevil in record-breaking free fall attempt: live
  24. ↑ sport.orf.at: "The whole world is watching"
  25. ↑ coordinates
  26. ↑ http://www.donaukurier.de/nachrichten/panorama/thema/Felix-Baumgartners-historischer-Sprung-aus-dem-All-Mission-erfuellt;art201586,2666978
  27. ^ Alan Eustace jumps from stratosphere breaking Felix Baumgartner's world record . New York Times, October 24, 2014
  28. ^ Altitude of the Highest Manned Balloon Flight. In: The Physics Factbook. Glenn Elert, accessed October 15, 2012 .
  29. ↑ QinetQ Flight by Tim Baggett. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  30. ↑ Official FAI recognition of Baumgartner's speed record from July 2012 ( memento of the original from October 25, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English); Accessed: October 19, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fai.org
  31. ↑ Андреев Евгений Николаевич , warheroes.ru
  32. ↑ Record values ​​officially recognized by Felix Baumgartner. The press, accessed April 12, 2013 .
  33. ↑ Red Bull Stratos: Billions in advertising value. In: Upper Austrian news . Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  34. ↑ Red Bull Stratos: Data & facts about the jump. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  35. ↑ 3 million Austrians saw the Stratos jump live. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  36. ↑ Stratos & Co .: The biggest TV events since the nineties. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .
  37. ↑ Almost three million Austrians saw Sprung live on TV. October 16, 2012, accessed March 18, 2020 .
  38. ↑ Andreas Wilkens: Supersonic jump sets a record on YouTube. In: heise online. October 15, 2012, accessed October 16, 2012 .
  39. ↑ Andreas Floemer: Felix Baumgartner: From record jumper to Internet meme. (No longer available online.) In: t3n magazine . October 16, 2012, archived from the original on October 18, 2012 ; Retrieved October 16, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / t3n.de
  40. ↑ Project Stratos: A small step for a human being, but not a big saying for humanity. Retrieved October 16, 2012 .

Coordinates: 33 ° 18 ′ 39.2 "  N , 104 ° 32 ′ 21.1"  W.