SpaceDiver Flight Profile Project: SpaceDiver In addition to our work on emergency pressure suits, Orbital Outfitters is partnered with a company called SpaceDiver on one of the world's most ambitious projects: diving from space. The goal of SpaceDiver is to create the systems and infrastructure necessary to allow a human being to accomplish an emergency (or other) egress from one of the NewSpace sub-orbital spacecraft and return to Earth safely - to bail out and skydive from the edge of space - or as it will be branded, “SpaceDive.” The project itself will demonstrate this capability through a series of progressive flights originating from NewSpace rocket powered vehicles at progressively higher altitudes thereby developing and demonstrating capability. The high point of this work will be a major media event focused around the breaking of the world skydive record of 102,800 Ft. set by Col. Joe Kittinger in 1960. To be clear, this project is not meant to be a one time stunt, nor is it solely focused on just breaking the altitude record for sky diving. Our interest is in developing the technical capability to carry out such dives on a regular basis. Given this approach, the possibility that another party might well reach this goal before us (by jumping from a balloon for example), is not a threat to the project, but rather just a new benchmark that we will eventually reach and pass. It is critical to bear in mind that the two limiting factors in high altitude skydive are the suit that you wear (including life support and attitude control) and the ride that takes you there (specifically how high it can take you). The great advantage of working closely with NewSpace vehicle developers is that the vehicles in question will not face even remotely similar altitude limits to balloons. Further on, there are a range of applications and opportunities to explore with this capability including military applications, emergency training and certification, and technology development. To be clear however, this project is challenging and dangerous. It is not an activity that the general public will have access to, but a high risk research activity involving trained professionals. All of that said, project Space Diver is an opportunity to develop critical safety technology and capability while raising public awareness and excitement about everything NewSpace has to offer. Many of the early steps necessary to make this project a success have been taken, but there is still much to be done before the world's first Spacedive. We are actively looking for partners of all kinds to assist us in this project's success. Since our interest is in developing the technology and not just the world record as it stands we are open to working with other projects and teams with similar foci. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - © 2006 - 2008 Orbital Outfitters. All rights reserved.