posted on Apr, 9 2011 @ 12:00 PM
reply to post by rogerstigers
You can't lift objects into LEO with lighter than air means because you run out of air before you get there. You can go nearly 103,000 feet above sea
level, as (once again) the USAF proved with the highest manned parachute jump back to earth way back a long time ago, from a balloon, with Project
Excelsior. The only way you can get into LEO is to go over 17,500 mph the opposite direction the earth rotates, otherwise if you want to get into LEO
the same direction the Earth rotates, add another 2,000 mph to your speed. Going 'up' doesn't do it, as its unlikely you can simply go up.
This is why all LEO launches take off going east, and usually as close to the equator as that country that launches these things can launch from, (why
the French launch from Guyana) so the U.S. decided Florida was good because nobody was on that land and the Atlantic was east of it should a launch
fail and plummet back down.
You should Google the highest parachute ever, as when the guy left he quickly fell beyond the sound barrier and had no references to how fast he was
falling up there. Many risks were taken in this experiment as the guy almost became incapacitated before he jumped, but lived to tell one big fish
story thats real.
There are reports that his speed of decent initially at around 600 mph has been topped by a decent at over 700 mph, still in the thin air way above
what sound travels, I believe at sea level sound goes around 760 mph near the equator, the fastest possible place to measure the speed of sound in air
on earth.