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Tue, Oct 02, 2007

Skydiving From Space

The Next Big Thing (After the Other Big Thing)?

As aerospace entrepreneurs compete to get high-flying tourists into space, one company is already figuring out a way to get them down again.

The way Rick Tumlinson, a founding trustee of the X-Prize Foundation and the man behind Space Diver, sees it, there are two ways for tourists to get back to Earth from space.

"In one of them, you're sitting comfortably in a vehicle," he tells ABC News Reporter Josh Bell. "In the other one, you are the vehicle."

It's a good fit (sorry for the pun) in that Tumlinson's OTHER company is Orbital Outfitters, makers of space suits.

That firm is set to deliver its first suit prototype to XCOR Aerospace in a few months, according to ABC.

For the record, USAF Test Pilot Joe Kittinger holds the high-altitude parachute record. In 1960, he jumped from a balloon at an altitude of 102,800 feet. He reached a top speed of 600 mph before thicker atmosphere slowed his decent.

Now, imagine jumping from the very edge of space -- 300,000 feet above the Earth. From that altitude, you'd free fall at a speed in excess of 2,500 mph. Your suit would heat up to approximately 400 degrees.

"If you have people who are willing to surf an 80-foot tidal wave, I think you're probably going to have adventure seekers who are going to try to go for the ultimate," Senior Analyst Marco Caceres at the Teal Group, tells ABC's Bell. "The question is, is that a big enough market to make money?"

FMI: www.orbitaloutfitters.com

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