Mission to the Edge of Space Feature Summary
- From Physics Research
Mission to the Edge of Space
- The figure at the bottom of the photo is Felix Baumgartner, shortly after he jumped from an altitude of 39 kilometers (24 miles). There, the thin atmosphere produces very little air resistance, so he was almost in free fall (in free fall, the only force acting on an object is gravity). He accelerated rapidly, broke the sound barrier, and went on to about Mach 1.2 (20% above the speed of sound).
For more detail, visit this Mission webpage. To learn more about the Stratos project, see Mission to the Edge of Space.
- image © Red Bull GmbH; image source; larger image
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- December 1, 2012 - December 16, 2012