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!
