TCTI: Too Crazy Too Ignore
 Dave Ross
FELIX.jpg
It was a tremendous feat of courage, and a tremendous feat of marketing for Red Bull. Whose stunts don't always go well. (AP image)

Space research becomes an action sport

BY Dave Ross  on October 15, 2012 @ 8:14 am (Updated: 9:54 am - 10/15/12 )

How about that Felix Baumgartner! Highest jump, fastest free-fall, breaking the sound barrier in just a pressure suit.

And, largest number of live YouTube views: 8 million live viewers, plus three million tweets, including a few cynical ones: "If Red Bull gives you wings, why was he just falling?"

But it was a tremendous feat of courage, and a tremendous feat of marketing for Red Bull, whose stunts don't always go well.

Flashback to 2009 and base jumper Sean McConkey. He specialized in skiing off cliffs and doing two back flips before opening his chute. His last attempt killed him.

That was one of three fatal accidents that year involving Red Bull athletes.

But Felix - who already has single name status - landed safely, proving that an astronaut could be rescued from a crippled space craft, and that profit-making companies not even in the space business can finance serious space research.

Now, I have to say, listening in on the communications it wasn't exactly NASA. But there was real science taking place. And it was paid for not by taxpayers, but by people buying an energy drink that by all accounts doesn't even taste that good.

I've never even seen Felix drink it. But that's the genius of this - he didn't have to, because plenty of other people will.

Dave Ross, KIRO Radio Talk Show Host
Dave Ross is co-host of The Ross & Burbank Show on KIRO Radio (weekdays 9-Noon) and never too far from the spotlight.
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  • cdbtx wrote...
    have to admit
    October 15, 2012 10:06 am
    First I watched it on the discovery channel.. and it was an awesome thing to see... but then again.... I tend to find myself watching the NASA channel alot too..

    Still... hats off to Red Bull and Felix..

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  • roomtemp wrote...
    How cool is that...
    October 17, 2012 2:48 pm
    What a view! (At least after they get the no fogging visor thing worked out.)

    I wonder how long it will be before we get some parachute backpacks with retro's and small wings as standard equipment on space missions.

    Coming soon... Base jumping off the ISS. :-D

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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