As “marketing stunts” go, this is a good one…

When Joe Kittinger did it, he was testing emergency escape systems for astronauts and high altitude pilots, and to see if they could survive bailing out at such high altitude. I guess there will be an extra level of data to add to Col. Kittinger’s findings.

Edit: When you hear the Apollo astronauts speak, they openly admit that they were essentially rock stars: They drove around in sports cars, they loved all the attention. Do you think they did that soley for the benefit of mankind?

Do you think people climb Everest purely for the good of mankind? Do you think people walk to the North Pole for the sole benefit of mankind? etc etc etc

I think psychology had a huge part to play in the whole thing, and to be fair was some thing the programme didn’t even touch on.

The guy likes sky diving, and has done everything that you can do in the sport, so needs a challenge, the next challenge is to go higher than anyone has before. Great.

However, what he didnt realise was that he wasn’t actually going to be sky diving, a point made by the guy who had been there and done it, he was essentially a bomb/aircraft. I assume this took Felix out of his comfort zone/control zone, and quite frankly scared him, just like some one who has never done a sky dive before. It obviously took him a year to get his head around it.

IMO he sounded petrified in the jump, where as the old guy sounded in control. It wasn’t what he signed up for.

No doubt there’s always a degree of self interest when people do this kind of thing, however I’m not sure I’d put people like the Apollo astronauts and pioneering mountaineers in the same bracket as Felix wotsisname.

Back then the fame was a by product – look at Neil Armstrong for example, he apparently hated the limelight. He was chosen for the Apollo missions because he was extremely good at his job, not because they thought he could handle the fame and attention that followed.

In my very humble and quite probably incorrect opinion, Felix wotsisname went through with this primarily because he saw fame and fortune, and Red Bull paid him a small fortune. That’s not to take anything away from him, it was an amazing achievement, but personally I had a lot more time for him before I watched the documentary.

Edit to add: The first thing my missus said when he decided to go through with it after a year off was “Red Bull offered him more money”. She’s usually not at all cynical so that speaks volumes to me.

Hehe…. bumgardener…..

For the record, I wasn’t putting ole Felix in the same bracket as the Apollo astronauts, just saying that virtually all human achievement has an element of “self-indulgence”.

I can see that there’s a lot of overlap between stuff I consider worthy (moon landings, space exploration, climbing Everest etc) and this, and I am not sure why this leaves me so cold compared to the others.

Essentially though, this has MOSTLY been done already. It’s just added a bit of speed and a bit of height.

So yeah it’s great that they climbed Everest or reached the South Pole. Howevever, pogo-sticking across Antarctica wearing a batman costume should be seen for what it is – an eccentric personal project, not some profound statement of humanity.

I wouldn’t have a problem with the space jump if it wasn’t so hyped up as something meaningful.

He was also monitored join the jump and test jumps and the data is going to be shared.

IIRC while watching it live NASA was mentioned as being interested in the results.

I wouldn’t have a problem with the space jump if it wasn’t so hyped up as something meaningful hadn’t been paid for by an Austrian drinks company.

😉

My impression of him deteriorated a bit after this:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/27/felix-baumgartner-sounds-off-on-nasa-sir-richard-branson.html

And while we’re at it, the piss-take blog, Sarcastic Rover, is worth a read on the subject…
Final Thoughts on Felix…

I’d still like to give it a try though… Shame I have never sky dived before.

I liked his rationalisation of his fear, the suit being essential for the hostile environment, therefore it made it all ok. Simples.

If the photo that ole Horatio posted doesn’t fill you with a sense of awe and wonder, then I feel sorry for you.

Are people here so cynical that they can’t even admit to being moved by exploration any more?

Exploration is never a waste of time.

Mikey74 nails it!
Just the pic of him standing there with the bright curvature of the earth gives me shivers. I’m glad that there are people like felix and even companies like red bull.

I did wonder why Felix got the gig as they’d have had less trouble with some test pilot type. Guessing he’s a Red Bull guy, and guessing being Austrian helps.

Also thought $11 million was quite a small sum of money for this type of project. Work a lot with big corporates and and frequently see how little they achieve with that sort of money.

And in case anyone has still not seen it…

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_MxWxDECgA[/video]

Shame I have never sky dived before.

http://www.bpa.org.uk/your-first-jump/
http://www.bpa.org.uk/where-can-i-jump/

Stop putting it off! (Nice to see good old G-WOTG on that first page as well! Ah, happy days…!)

And in case anyone has still not seen it…

I laughed my a*s off when I first saw that.

If the photo that ole Horatio posted doesn’t fill you with a sense of awe and wonder, then I feel sorry for you.

The photo does, but that’s not really the issue.

I dunno if it counts as exploration – after all, we’ve been up there and beyond plenty of times. It seemed more like.. well.. willy waving. I wonder how much of it’s down to the fact it was paid for out of a company’s marketing budget.

Nowt wrong with big companies paying for it after all they seem to be the ones with the money.

During his “missing year” wasn’t he busy doing this?