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02/20/10 - From the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

I'm not sure how much of this is science and how much of this is stunt, but it was written up in the journal Science. Some guy named Felix Baumgartner is planning to jump from a helium balloon from about 20 miles up. Apparently, it's pretty tricky since it's minus 100 degrees up there and the air pressure is so low that water boils even when it is that cold. Still, it sounds like it could be real science.

The accompanying picture, though, was the clincher. If you look carefully, or click for a bigger version, you can see the SR-71 spy plane at cruising altitude, and way above that is Joe Kittinger, the current high altitude balloon jumping record holder. That's probably Felix's balloon up there at the top along with an action shot of Felix on his way down.


There's Joe!

Keywords: science