In case you missed history being made yesterday, here’s the money shot.
Here are a few facts about yesterday’s record breaking freefall jump from the edge of space courtesy of Airman magazine.
Here are the stats from the jump:
Exit Altitude: 128,100 feet
Free Fall Time: 4 minutes, 20 seconds
Free Fall Distance: 119,846 feet
Maximum Velocity: 373 meters/second — He achieved Mach 1.24!
Some final words from the press conference:
“When I was standing there on top of the world so humble, you are not thinking about breaking records. I was thinking about coming back alive. You do not want to die in front of your parents and all these people….I thought ‘please God, don’t let me down.”
~ Felix Baumgartner
Best Quote:”I’d like to give the one-fingered salute to everyone who said he was going to break apart when he went supersonic.”
~ Col Joseph Kittinger
“I want to inspire the next generation. I want to be in mission control with someone younger than me wanting to break my record.”
~Felix
It had me on the edge of my seat and I think I was holding my breath until he got stable in freefall. My hat’s off to Felix Baumgartner but I have to say that Joe Kettinger is a stud. Consider that he jumped thousands of feet lower than Baumgartner yet held freefall longer before deploying his chute. And, he did it with a compromised pressure suit. And, it was in 1960! That man has balls as big as church bells. Here’s to the next young person who works to break these records!
Tags: Felix Baumgartner
Awsome evnt!! Only issue I have is the freefall record not being broken. Kittinger did his jump under a drouge chute, slowing his descent. If Baumgartner would have set a drouge, he would have clearly fell for a longer time. You can say that Kittinger has the longest time ever under a drouge, but Baumgartner definetly has the longest freefall ever.
Its possible that Felix did that on purpose so Joe’s name would still be on the record. He’s not saying, so we’ll never know for certain, but Felix seems to be a class act.
I agree, he is a class act, but there needs to be two catagories. Tumbling out of control at 700 MPH cannot be compared to a controled fall under a drouge. This guy did something insane, and clearly set the record for longest time in a true freefall.
That’s a very good point. I really appreciate Col Kittinger’s attitude through all of this.
This was truly an amazing and historic event to watch. I know a lot of us made it a point that we were going to stop work to watch this thing unfold. When you know how the body reacts to high altitude freefall, all you can do is watch, and tell the non-believers to go do it themselves.
There has to be a new category of awesome above awesome for this – and especially for Col. Kittinger.
How about Mentor Of Awesome?
Church bells, indeed. Col Kittinger also 483 combat missions in Viet Nam and survived 10 months in the Hanoi Hilton. See his entry in Badass of the Week for a good read.
Don’t forget the camera man wearing a PT belt!!!
This is one of the most unbelievable things I have ever seen! I have jumped from close to 30,000 and I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to jump from the top of the world. Absolutely amazing. I watched Felix’s video blogs and I really think he was the perfect guy for this amazing event. A class act all around.
I wish I could do this man. I would jump today if someone gave me the opportunity!
What a WASTE of money. We have people giving up their lives to go fight and die in a foriegn land, and they wasted money on this? people are homeless, children are going to bed hungry, and they waste money on this? there are people out there that CAN’T get medical help because they have no job and no insurance, and you waste money on this? No wonder people all over the world hate us Americans! We don’t even care enough to take care of our own people, so some idiot can go on a parachute jump. The military does that all the time while people shoot at them, yet how many of you care enough to send them a card or a letter saying thank you?
America should be ashamed!