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View Full Version : Teens send helium balloon to the edge of space


FlyTexas
March 18th, 2009, 13:22
How cool is this? :applause:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5005022/Teens-capture-images-of-space-with-56-camera-and-balloon.html

Brian
Roger
March 18th, 2009, 13:34
Brilliant! Thanks for the hu Brian:ernae:
Pauke! Pauke!
March 29th, 2009, 11:39
That is so cool. I'm glad some young people still have a curious sense and want to explore. I'm reminded of "Project Excelsior" and Colonel Joseph Kittinger.

On August 16, 1960 he made the final jump from the Excelsior III at 102,800 feet (31,300 m). Towing a small drogue chute for stabilization, he fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds reaching a maximum speed of 614 mph (988 km/h or 274 m/s) before opening his parachute at 18,000 feet (5,500 m).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kittinger

81gn2oLeC_U
GT182
March 29th, 2009, 12:49
Great for those kids. They did something most of us wish we could have done.

Amazing about Col Kittinger..... and the closest thing to being a human bullet too.

I was only 10 at the time and I can honestly say I don't remember it. But that could be a case of CRS as I watched and read anything I could that had to do with space exploration. Up until we moved I had every Life magazine having to do with the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Moon missions up to Apollo 18. A flooded basement destroyed them all. None that I recall had Kittinger's accomplishments in them.
Pauke! Pauke!
March 29th, 2009, 13:40
I was only 10 at the time and I can honestly say I don't remember it. But that could be a case of CRS as I watched and read anything I could that had to do with space exploration. Up until we moved I had every Life magazine having to do with the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Moon missions up to Apollo 18. A flooded basement destroyed them all. None that I recall had Kittinger's accomplishments in them.

GT182: I don't think "Project Excelsior" was that publisized. I think part of the testing was to determine if it was possible to bail-out of aircraft at extreme altitude and survive. They also needed to know what special equipment would be needed to do so. This was the era of CIA sponsored U2 fly-overs of the USSR. It was a military project not a NASA project so it was kept out of public knowledge I suppose. Still, it would be an understatement to say the the good Colonel certainly had a pair.