New Skydiving Record Attempt

Speshal said:
Ascent of Everest? Trek to the poles? Man on the moon - were they all egotistical stunts?
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Ascent of Everest--ego pure and simple. You, as a tourist today, can sign on to an "adventure tour" to Everest, and they will virtually drag you to the top. If that isn't ego, I don't know what is!

Man to the moon had vast scientific implications as well as ego on a nation vs nation scale (It beats war, doesn't it)?

Trekking to the pole could be viewed as either.
 
So not pure human conquest then, yes "as a tourist today" you can ascend Everest with the most modern clothing and life support systems, there's still a high percentage chance that you'll die trying.

Trekking to the pole, no one had done it before, now celebrities do it for TV programs, doesn't diminish the achievement of the first men that made it there.

Man on the Moon was 4 seconds from being aborted apart from the human in control saying "We can do this"

Likewise with this achievement, no one knew what happened to the human body should it experience supersonic flight, this was potentially a one way trip yet naysayers like you put it off as a publicity stunt for a fizzy drinks company* - I just don't understand your reasoning.

Have you become so desensitised to human achievement that you weren't remotely impressed by it at all? If so I pity you.

The Olympic motto is Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger and that is what humanity has strived for since the dawn of time, without which you'd be still sat in your cave thumping rocks together, let alone pounding out your opinions on your computer.



*Said fizzy drinks company seem to be leading the F1 championship at the moment.
 
This jump wasn't all about record breaking and ego boosting, the technology developed for it can now be used for future space missions in case of accidents in high altitude.

The last barriers in exploration on the planet are now the depths of the oceans, only those with the funding can explore so if not for the rich ego boosters such as James Cameron would we get the answers to what lies beneath?
 
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Speshal

The genesis of the entire space race was national pride (ego of both sides) of the US vs USSR. The American pride took a thrashing with the launch of Sputnik. Plus there were serious defense implications (the famous "missile gap"). So while the "human conquest" aspect was very laudable, the fact is that national ego was the underlying driver as both nations were eager to prove their superority over the other. That does not diminish the human acheivement in the least.
 
So, they took technology from the 1820's (helium balloon), stuck a guy in a 1960's technology suit to ride it up to not quite space then he jumped out and rode 1907 technology (parachute) down-impressive (heavy sarcasm). I have never used a parachute and I would literally do what this guy did tomorrow if they asked me to.
 
gethinceri said:
But there is one thing that you would be unable to do, survive.
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You misunderstand me. I know that a human can't survive at that altitude but this riding up in a balloon, falling out then pulling a chute is more along the lines of adventure tourism than skill. This would have been damn impressive in 1960 but not today. Today, a thing that is still amazing is a person climbing Everest without oxygen, but there aren't videos of that flying all over my Facebook feed.
 
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