by Sir Conehead » 23 Jan 2010 18:02
More than a couple of decades ago Jonny baby, more like 40 years ago! And Joe himself is a major consultant on the project with Felix (being the only other person to do it) and is in the link I posted, which also shows him doing it 'back in the day'.
Its pretty insane - Joe went from 102,000ft so Felix is going for 120,000ft - he'll accellerate to 700-900mph due to no atmosphere (they're not sure as obviously its not been done before from that height, I think Joe got up to 700mph). Apparently you see more than the curve, you get to see the full on curve of the earth as 100,000ft+ is almost in space. FAA give you astronaut wings if you go above 50 miles, I think 120,000 is 23 miles?
Also before anyone asks about 're-entry' and why he doesn't burn up - Felix isn't coming from orbit at 22,000mph, he's already within what non existant atmosphere there is and will be slowed down as the atmosphere gets thicker.