Live bear jump Sat. 24 August & Mon. 26 August

[ianr]

Babbage Bear will be seeking to emulate Felix Baumgartner's record-breaking 39,000m. freefall from a balloon at about 11 am tomorrow over the Newbury area. More details here: http://www.daveakerman.com/. There are no indications so far of any change to the schedule. Near-live photo feeds should be available, including some on-bear ones at http://ssdv.habhub.org/.

[Sue]

Is Babbage Bear doing this of his own free will??

[Annette Curtain]

Got to this bit and glazed over

>The main payload is called PIE. This has a cutdown mechanism<

Zzzzzzzz

[Sue]

It's a BEAR! Going up in the AIR!

Don't bother reading it all, look at the pics in the second link :))

[Annette Curtain]

Hopefully the nylon knitted bear will catch fire along with all the kit

[ianr]

Launch preparation underway at http://www.batc.tv/streams/ukhas2.

[Sue]

Annette Curtain Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Hopefully the nylon knitted bear will catch fire

> along with all the kit

xxxxxxxx

Not a fan of Teddy Bears then?

[ianr]

Babbage balloon launched at 12:18 BST. TED/PIE Map and altitude tracker at http://spacenear.us/tracker/?filter=PIE%3BTED (currently 7700m) and live photos coming in at http://ssdv.habhub.org/ (times arte UT, same as GMT).

19,500 metres (12 miles) high at 13:24 BST -- half-way to the height at which he will jump. Still ascending at ~6 m/s.

The balloon has reversed its horizontal path twice so far.

Babbage looks well. http://ssdv.habhub.org/images/2013-08-24--12-22-25-PIE-4A4.jpeg

[Sue]

Hurrah! Good luck Babbage Bear!

[ianr]

Babbage is now at 33,000m, 6 km (~12 minutes) short of the height at which he's scheduled to begin his skydive. Telemetry and photographs still seem ridiculously good.

As well as the onboard photo stream, the recovery car channel is at http://www.batc.tv/ch_live.php (pick UKHAS Balloon launches stream)

[ianr]

The forum clock is inaccurate. Babbage has reached 39km now, 14:12 BST, and his height is shown as unchanging - maybe a glitch - the balloon is shown as still ascending.

ETA: PIE and TED now both shown (separately) as decending at ~ 65m/s. [14:16]

14:28: at 13 km, falling at 17 m/s.

[maxxi]

He did not jump, he was pushed.

Early training shot-

[unlurked]

Using bears for this is just plain cruel. Can't they use cats?

[ianr]

Home in time for tea. https://twitter.com/AnthonyStirk/status/371303694626603008/photo/1

[Sue]

maxxi Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> He did not jump, he was pushed.

>

>

> Early training shot-

>

> https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:AN

> d9GcTN0yswxwyyKHuojwlSnIpF-jyJIAlL-_V3j9rDm0Yq7r5I

> 2WFAjg

xxxxxx

:)) :)) :))

[ianr]

The bear is fearless. Having apparently broken the amateur live photo height record yesterday, he's having another go at the skydive tomorrow about 1-2pm. I think this may be because his release from the main payload didn't work properly on Saturday. Same sites as above, I think, if you want live coverage. I assume stills and videos will be available later anyway.

[ianr]

> Using bears for this is just plain cruel. Can't they use cats?

Can you manage a payload of well under a kilogram? http://ukhas.org.uk/general:flight_data

Babbage at about 17,000 metres at 14:38 BST: http://ssdv.habhub.org/images/2013-08-26--13-38-20-PIE-50A.jpeg

Babbage at about 34,000 metres at 15:35 BST:http://ssdv.habhub.org/images/2013-08-26--14-35-55-PIE-51C.jpeg

[Annette Curtain]

And...?

Is burger bear still with us or has something terrible happened to it

Don't tell me; he unraveled and by the time he hit earth he was just a damp ball of kapok & calico

Or is he hanging in there by a thread still ?

[ianr]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/08/27/babbage_skydive/

[Sue]

Hooray for the bear!

Felix Baumgartner eat your heart out!