The Ballad of Felix Baumgatner

Well unless you live in a cave you know that Felix Baumgartner jumped from the stratosphere right into the history books.

To commemorate the effort songwriter John Anealio  says he watched it live with his son and it inspired him to write a new song about it.  Called "The Ballad of Felix Baumgartner"

Here it is for your pleasure:

Mach Man!

I was just going to update my earlier observations but what happened today is truly worthy of a post of it's own. Felix Baumgartner, an Austrian daredevil, rolled back the portal hatch cover, disconnected his custom space suit from external supplies, stepped off the stoop of his specially constructed capsule, at a height of over 24 miles in height, and fell into aeronautics history.

  Baumgartner, within minutes reached 833.9 miles per hour, or Mach 1.24, putting him solidly into the history books.

  Baumgartner broke altitude and speed records set half a century ago by Joe Kittinger, now 84, a retired Air Force colonel. Curiously, Baumgartner, early into the jump, experienced the same problem that had nearly killed Mr. Kittinger a half-century earlier. Early in the jump when he began spinning out of control in the thin air of the stratosphere, but as the atmosphere thickened, Baumgartner managed to stop the spin and open his cute at 5 thousand feet and continue to a soft landing, under full control.

For more about the jump and Felix and this incredible sky dive, you can go to the

New York Times here

The Wiki info on Joe Kittinger here

And Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos jump here

RED BULL STRATOS Delayed Until Sunday 10/14/12

It is now official Kallamis is being drove batty. Why? Well the Red Bull sky dive from the edge of space has once again been moved due to weather conditions. As it stands right now the dive by Felix Baumgartner will take place Sunday October 14th.

For your entertainment, here is the animation of the jump

And if you click here, you can go directly to the site.

The Red Bull Stratos Suit unveiled

The Red Bull Stratos science team has unveiled the first space suit ever to be produced by David Clark Company for a non-governmental space program. The team has also revealed the pressure helmet, which with the suit will serve as Felix Baumgartners sole life-support system when he steps off his capsule at 120,000 feet to attempt a record-breaking freefall from the edge of space.

The suit was manufactured by Massachusetts-based David Clark company, which has pioneered air and space crew protective equipment since 1941, including launch entry suits for Space Shuttle astronauts and the iconic suit that United States Air Force Colonel (Ret.) Joe Kittinger wore on his historic Excelsior III jump in 1960.

Kittinger set three world records that still stand: the highest parachute jump 102,800 ft, the longest parachute drogue fall 4 minutes and 36 seconds and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere 614 mph.