What does Felix's jump mean for commercial space diving?

[philh 0]

First off well done to everyone at Red Bull Stratos for such an amazing acheivement. The most watched ever live stream even on the internet goes to a skydiving project. Who would have thought our sport would get such a moment in the spotlight? Awesome job guys.
My question is about the prospect for commercial space diving. There was an article in the new scientist and others picked up on it a number of years ago:
http://www.sportstechreview.com/2010/09/the-ultimate-extreme-sport-space-diving/

I was lucky enough to sit next to the test pilot for XCOR Lynx spacecraft , who had flown the shuttle 3 times (twice as pilot and once as commander).

http://www.xcor.com/products/vehicles/lynx_suborbital.html

He said the plan for the Lynx spacecraft is to have one passenger wearing a spacesuit rather than Virgin's 6 passengers, no suit. Hence they are looking at the possibility of the passenger being able to spacedive at the top.

So Im thinking Felix's jump is a good step to making that goal happen. Hes shown a human can survive the supersonic skydive. But looking at the number of support team people, the cost of each suit and the spin that Felix got into; Do we think this is just pie in the sky or is it a real possibility for the future?

[AggieDave 6]

Meanwhile, on DZ.com in 2025:


"Hi, I have 120 jumps and have done a few space jumps, but I'm thinking about wearing a GoPro Hero 4 and downsizing to a Katana2 - 135 on the next one, what do you think?"

"Ohhh, you're going to die. You shouldn't jump with a GoPro until at least 200 jumps and that canopy is really for someone with around 500...have a good skydive and why don't you get another video guy to video you?"

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[CarpeDiem3 0]

I doubt space-diving will catch on due to the enormous expense and extensive prerequisite skills.

But I bet that regular 'ol tandem jumping gets a spike, as droves of curious people flock to drop zones to get a taste of what it must be like.