Felix Baumgartner of Austria has just completed his much anticipated jump with the Red Bull Stratos team. Footage aired live on Youtube as more than 7,500,000 viewers tuned in for this world record event! The jump was initially planned to exceed the 120,000 feet mark, to ensure that Felix would have enough freefall to exceed the speed of sound on his jump.Multiple world records were broken today, some being the highest altitude jump ever attempted by man, as well as the highest manned balloon flight on record. Confirmation still awaits to see if Felix Baumgartner has officially broken the speed of sound, a feat that has never been successfully completed before. Although there were hopes to break Joe Kittinger’s longest freefall record, that did not happen today. Felix came within seconds of matching the long-standing record, but deployed his parachute around the 4 minute 22 second mark.
Early on in the mission there were some fears that the face mask heater was not properly functioning, and Felix expressed concerns that the mask might freeze over during his jump. Fortunately the mask did not freeze over, but during his freefall he made remarks that his mask was fogged up and that he had difficulty seeing. Speculation exists if this is why his parachute was deployed before reaching he world record mark for the longest freefall.
Prior to today, Joe Kittinger has held the world record for the longest freefall, the highest altitude jump, and the fastest freefall, records that stood undefeated for 52 years. Joe’s record setting jump was from an altitude of 102,800 feet on August 16, 1960. Joe, 84 years old, was a big component for the Red Bull Stratos jump. Joe served as not only an advisor during the planning stages for the mission, but was also the lead communicator during the actual mission at Mission Control in Roswell, New Mexico.
World Record! Felix Baumgartner jumps from 128,000 feet!
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