You can't get balloons out of the atmosphere for obvious reasons.

For donating his body to science. Some of my friends think the supersonic speed will break his body.

My scientific curiosity is overriding my more compassionate instincts.

Personally, I don't think he can achieve supersonic speed. I think the drag necessary to keep him in control will cause him to fall short of sound barrier.

There's next to no drag at that altitude.

and did some research and calculations;

Kittinger did not reach supersonic speed. Baumgartners jump is expected to be the first.

They expect him to achieve supersonic speed in 40 sec. Without trying to figure out air resistance and terminal velocity that's a drop of 8-10km. Air pressure at that altitude is 1% of what we experience.

When they use the term "supersonic" they are not referring to local speed of sound they are referring to the speed of sound at standard temperature and pressure. So, he will actually break the local speed of sound much earlier than 40 sec. That moment when he breaks the local speed of sound is actually the interesting moment and they do anticipate he could go into a dangerous spin and black out as the air thickens and slows him down. So they have safety features built in.

So, to answer my own question - physical breakage unlikely. Blacking out and losing control are likely.

Go ahead. Drive a truck through the opening I just left.

prevent the deflation.

hoping the launch stays postponed until she can get back to be there. She has been really fretting over the fact that her schedule with the astronauts and Soyuz would keep her away. She loves working with the astronauts, of course, and she loves Star City and the whole expereince in general, but she sure does not want to miss this launch.

I will try to find a link to a pic of her and one of the other docs as they watch one of the test lift-offs.

Oh, and at the moment she is in Russia--in Star City, outside of Moscow. She is the doctor taking care of our astronauts right now as they train on the Soyuz space capsule, since otu shuttle program was closed down. (For 3 years she was also one of the docs who would be there for lift-off and touch-down when our shuttles would fly in Orlando.)

I am very proud of her. (She was a Fulbright Fellow, too. My little girl gets around!)

You must be bursting with pride!

In case you are interested, she sent me a video from a Russian TV media spot about the next flight to the International Space Station (with our guys on it), which was posted on YouTube. Here is the message she sent me with it:

This is the media spot for Kevin Ford, who is about to launch in Soyuz in a couple of weeks. I went with him to the Red Square ceremonies. I show up from 34.46-34.50, walking into the building with Kevin, and then again around minute 35.

(Sadly, I was messing with my camera THE WHOLE TIME since I was supposed to be getting Kevin some pics, but my card was at max So, yeah, you can watch me with my head down, clearing off my media card to keep taking pics.