Shock waves and history in free fall

The discussion about Felix Baumgartner’s fall to Earth gives an interesting analysis of a hair-raising event. A similar historical feat that few may know about involves the return of the early Soviet cosmonauts.

In the race into space, the Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin and his colleagues in the Vostok program into orbit without having confidence they could bring them back in one piece. Their solution, which they kept secret for many years, was to have the cosmonauts eject from their reentering capsule at an altitude of 7 km and parachute to the ground. Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space and part of the Vostok program, was chosen for the job in part because she was a member of a parachuting club.

So while Baumgartner started his jump essentially at rest, Gagarin and colleagues started with a big initial velocity. Stories about the 2012 jump got me wondering just how fast the cosmonauts were going. I’ve posted my analysis at http://allthingsnuclear.org/skydiving-from-a-reentering-spaceship .