Short Sharp Science: Supersonic dive could make space safer for tourists

(Image: Luke Aikins/SIPA/Rex Features)
Dave's comment:  Helping make space tourists safer?  Give me a break.  No one's going to be bailing out of Space Ship 2 at 120,000 feet, passengers won't even have spacesuits.  This is a stunt, pure and simple.  But hey, I'll be watching.

Short Sharp Science: Supersonic dive could make space safer for tourists: "Felix Baumgartner will definitely be going faster than a speeding bullet if all goes as planned next Monday, when the daredevil skydiver is slated to make his keenly awaited leap from a capsule 36 kilometres above the surface of the Earth.

Within 40 seconds, he should accelerate to about 1110 kilometres per hour - faster than the speed of sound in the cold, sparse air at the edge of space. As part of the Red Bull Stratos project, the jump will potentially set the record for the highest skydive, and might see Baumgartner become the first human to break the sound barrier in free fall."