That Last Step

Austrian Felix Baumgartner did something remarkable today as part of the Red Bull Stratos project.  He jumped out of a balloon.  This in itself is not all that remarkable, BASE jumpers have been doing that for years, taking conventional hot-air balloons up to altitude then jumping out of the basket for some free-fall time, then parachuting to safety.

That Felix Baumgartner’s balloon was 24 miles/39 kilometres above the surface of the planet was more the remarkable achievement.  Those of an historical bent will recall pictures of Capt. Joe Kittinger jumping out of a balloon in Project Excelsior circa 1959.  Kittinger’s big step was from 102,800 feet:  Baumgartner’s jump clocked in at 123,000 feet.  Both men survived of course, as that kind of high altitude jump might ruin ones’ day if things go wrong.  Services tend to be private afterwards.

Where the real fun comes in is the whole idea of private corporations, like Red Bull, SpaceX, or Virgin doing the things that NASA used to do.  Sure, the Red Bull Stratos jump was a bit of a publicity stunt to promote their beverage, but it also packed some legit science along for the ride.  SpaceX has proven their Dragon capsule works nicely as a cheap tug to the International Space Space Station.  Of course there has always been ‘private’ companies working with NASA, like Boeing, North American, Grumman, Hughes and such, but none of the usual suspects would so much as lift a slide rule without a NASA contract for cost-plus.

We like that private industry has the vision and the stones to get it done and get it on.  NASA and for that matter, most of the aerospace industry have been paralyzed by project managers and bureaucrats who treasure process over actual results or accomplishments.  Our explorers were never process monkeys who got a secretive stiffy over a GANTT chart with multiple milestones.  They were folks who did some back of the envelope calculations, took a look again, then said Giv’er.

What the jump actually shows us is that we can embrace the potential for dramatic failure, in the bright light of public scrutiny and through some luck, some pluck and some good science, make it work.