Edge of Space
HIGHEST
ALTITUDE BY
A COMMERCIAL
ASTRONAUT
On 4 Oct 2004, Brian
Binnie (USA) piloted
SpaceShipOne to an
altitude of 367,486 ft
(112,010 m) above
the Mojave Desert
in California, USA.
Binnie’s flight also
broke the record for
the highest altitude
by a winged aircraft,
which had been held
since 1963, when
NASA research pilot
Joe Walker achieved
a height of 107.96 km
(67.08 mi) in an X-15.According to NASA, the average mass of Earth’s atmosphere is around 5.1 quadrillion
(5.1 x 10^15 ) tonnes – some 1 million times lighter than our planet’s own mass.186First image of a sprite
Sprites are atmospheric electrical phenomena
associated with lightning. These unusual flashes
shoot upwards from the tops of thunderstorms
to altitudes of 100 km (62 mi) above the surface
of Earth. Historical reports of these atmospheric
features were not regarded as genuine until
the first image was taken, accidentally, on 6 Jul
1989, when Professor John R Winckler of the
University of Minnesota was testing a low-
level-light TV camera for an upcoming rocket
launch and recorded bright columns of light
towering above distant thunderheads.Largest meteor-burst
communications network
Meteor-burst communications exploit the effects
of meteors (aka “shooting stars”) upon the Earth’s
upper atmosphere, at 76–100 km (47.2–62 mi) in
altitude. When a meteor burns up as it enters the
atmosphere, it leaves a trail of ionized particles
in its wake. These brief trails can reflect radio
waves and so can be used to create temporary
long-range communications links between
radio stations up to around 2,250 km (1,400 mi)
apart. SNOTEL (SNOwpack and TELemetry) is a
series of sensors designed to monitor snowpack
and other climate data in the western USA, and
began operation in the 1970s. It consists of
more than 730 stations, which use meteor-burst
communications to send their data for analysis.HIGHEST ALTITUDE...
Survivable by a human in
an unpressurized environment
The Armstrong limit was first conceived of
by Harry Armstrong (USA), a pioneer in
aviation medicine. It represents the altitude
at which water boils at normal human
body temperature (37°C; 98.6°F) and
corresponds to an atmospheric pressure
of just 0.0618 atm (atmosphere: 1 atm
represents typical atmospheric pressure
at sea level). It occurs at an
altitude between 18,900 m and
19,350 m (62,000–63,480 ft),
making this the absolute
highest altitude at which a
person could theoretically
survive without a pressure
suit or a pressurized capsule.
At or above the Armstrong
limit, your lung fluids, saliva
and tears would boil away.To be exposed to
(equivalent)
On 14 Dec 1966, Jim
LeBlanc (USA) was a NASA
volunteer test subjecttesting space suits inside a depressurization
chamber in Houston, Texas, USA. When an
equipment failure disconnected the hose that
kept his space suit pressurized, LeBlanc was
instantly exposed to a partial vacuum equivalent
to an altitude of 120,000 ft (36,576 m), with a
pressure of just 0.0068 atm. He blacked out. It
took 87 sec for the chamber to be repressurized
to 14,000 ft (4,267.2 m) equivalent altitude, at
which point LeBlanc woke. Later, he recalled
feeling his own saliva boiling off his tongue just
before he passed out.In sustained horizontal flight
USAF Captain Robert C Helt (pilot) and USAF Major
Larry A Elliott (RSO) reached 85,068 ft (25,929 m)
in sustained horizontal flight aboard a Lockheed
SR-71A “Blackbird” at Beale Air Force Base,
California, USA, on 28 Jul 1976. This is more than
twice the average Boeing 747 cruising altitude
of 35,000 ft (10,668 m).Paper plane launch
Students from Kesgrave High School, along
with their science teacher David Green
(all UK), let fly a paper plane at 35,043 m
(114,970 ft) above Elsworth in Cambridgeshire,
UK, on 24 Jun 2015. The plane rose attached to
a helium balloon; an electrical current, triggered
from the ground, then severed the string affixing
the plane, thereby “launching” it.Untethered (in non-orbital flight)
Several astronauts have performed tasks in orbit
while unconnected to a spacecraft. In terms of
non-orbital activities, however, the record is held
by Austria’s Felix Baumgartner. After ascending
to a height of 39,068.5 m (128,177 ft) above New
Mexico, USA, in a helium-filled balloon on 14 Oct
2012, he perched on the ledge of a capsule in the
final moments before making his death-defying
leap to Earth (see opposite).Reached by a projectile fired from a gun
On 19 Nov 1966, an 84-kg ( 185 - lb) projectile was
fired to an altitude of 180 km (112 mi) from the
HARP (High Altitude Research Project) gun at
Yuma in Arizona, USA. The weapon consisted of
two barrels with a calibre of 42 cm (16.5 in) fused
into a single elongated barrel 36.4 m (119 ft 5 in)
long and weighing 150 tonnes (165.3 tons).The Kármán Line
divides aeronautics
missions from space
missions and is adhered
to by both NASA
and the Fédération
Aéronautique
Internationale (FAI).
FIRST MAN-MADE OBJECT TO ENTER SPACE
The boundary of space is known as the Kármán Line, after
Theodore von Kármán (USA, b. HUN). Kármán realized that the
altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level is the height at which
a vehicle would need to travel at faster than orbital velocity in
order to gain enough aerodynamic lift to sustain flight. On 20 Jun
1944, a test flight of a German V-2 missile, designed to strike
London, UK, reached an altitude of 174.6 km (108.49 mi).Troposphere
0–12 kmStratosphere
12–50 kmMesosphere
50–80 kmThermosphere
80–c. 700 kmExosphere
c. 700–190,000 kmExobase
c. 700–1,000 kmKármán Line
100 kmOzone Layer
20–30 kmSatelliteHubble
Space
TelescopeInternational Space StationAurora BorealisMeteorsHigh-altitude
balloonAlan
EustaceFighter jetHot-air balloonPassenger aeroplaneQ: How long does it take
a Global Positioning
System (GPS) satellite
to orbit Earth?
A: About 12 hr(Not to scale)