Yesterday, humanity has experienced something quite bizzare but exciting as the same time.
A man called Felix Baumgartner has made a jump over the Stratosphere over the sky of New Mexico on 14 October 2012 when Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico after jumping from a world record of 39,045 metres (128,100 ft) or just over 39 kilometres (24 mi).
Left to right: Joe Kittinger, Felix Baumgartner, Art Thompson and Mike Todd
The hall story has being started back to January of 2010 – when it was reported that Felix Baumgartner [an Austrian helicopter pilot, skydiver, daredevil and BASE jumper] was working with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull to attempt the highest sky-dive on record. Baumgartner initially struggled with claustrophobia after spending time in the pressurized suit required for the jump, but overcame it with help from a sports psychologist and other specialists.
The launch was originally scheduled for 9 October 2012, but was aborted due to adverse weather conditions. Launch was rescheduled and the mission instead took place on 14 October 2012 when Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico after jumping from a world record 39,045 metres (128,100 ft) or just over 39 kilometres (24 mi). On the basis of provisional data, Baumgartner also set the record for the highest manned balloon flight (at the same height) and fastest speed of free fall at 1,342 km/h (834 mph)—Mach 1.24— Baumgartner broke the sound barrier on his descent, making him the first human to break the sound barrier outside of a vehicle (becoming the first human to do so without vehicular power). Baumgartner was in free fall for 4 minutes and 19 seconds, 17 seconds shy of mentor Joseph Kittinger’s 1960 jump.
Note that Baumgartner did, in fact, not broken the record for freefall. That is dated on 16 August 1960 and was ttempted by by Colonel Joseph Kittinger. The pilot of the U.S. Air Force had jumped from an altitude of 31,300 feet, reaching a speed estimated at over Mach 0.9 and its free fall lasted 4 minutes and 32 seconds (against 4 minutes and 19 seconds Baumgartner ). However, Kittinger’s record was not approved because its free fall was stopped by the emergency procedure, however, the record will be officially awarded to Baumgartner which triggered his own parachute.
Felix Baumgartner might not have broken Joe Kittinger’s world record for the longest time spent in freefall, but he did smash a fourth milestone during his dive. In addition to records for the highest ever jump, longest distance fall and fastest downward speed, the stunt was watched by not less than 8 million YouTubers at the same time.
Source : Red Bull Stratos
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