![]() So far only one person knows what it feels like to tumble helplessly toward the Earth from the edge of space. Tied up in his chute like an oversized silkworm, he would then plunge to a certain death. "If you start to get into a flat spin, you quickly pass out." Although the emergency system would still release his parachute automatically, a tumbling jumper could easily get tangled up in his own lines. "The most dangerous aspect is the loss of control," Aikins says. ![]() Each time, the astronaut finished head down, hanging off the rope like a carcass on a hook. To practice this, Baumgartner repeatedly had himself hoisted up on a crane and then jumped off on a bungee cord. That means there's no room for spread-eagle pikes like those of cliff divers, but merely a gentle rock forward a tiny step rather than jerky movements. "I feel like I've aged 50 years when I'm wearing it," Baumgartner complains.Įverything therefore depends on jumping correctly. It's the weight of his parachute, the two oxygen tanks he's carrying, and, most of all, the pressurized spacesuit that are causing him problems. Baumgartner isn't really worried about the cold or the thin air. Although that's almost the height of Mount Everest, it's still only a quarter of what he is aiming for. Sitting in an empty airplane hangar for the post-jump evaluation, Baumgartner tells his team, "It's pretty uncomfortable up there." He's just leapt from an altitude of more than 8,000 meters (26,000 feet). Nobody knows what happens to the human body at this altitude in these icy temperatures and at this speed. Baumgartner wants to become the first person to travel faster than the speed of sound without the protection of a metal cockpit. The project is dubbed Red Bull Stratos after the Austrian energy-drink manufacturer whose almost inexhaustible advertising budget is sponsoring the exploit. SPIEGEL Media Menü SPIEGEL Media aufklappen.Alle Magazine Menü Alle Magazine aufklappen.SPIEGEL-Heft Menü SPIEGEL-Heft aufklappen.Gutscheine Anzeige Menü Gutscheine aufklappen.Marktplatz Anzeige Menü Marktplatz aufklappen.Partner-Inhalte Anzeige Menü Partner-Inhalte aufklappen.Wissenschaft Menü Wissenschaft aufklappen.Formel 1 – Liveticker, Kalender, WM-Stand.
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