This past Sunday, a monumental event occurred, with sound barrier-breaking news. Felix Baumgartner, an
Austrian skydiver, daredevil, and BASE jumper, fearlessly jumped from the stratosphere. Now at first, this
seems completely impossible and almost suicidal. But with his team of qualified experts behind him, or more
specifically beneath him, the chance to break several world records was too tempting for Baumgartner. About
five years went into planning and preparing for only a few minutes of record-breaking history. Baumgartner
was brought up to space in a human-sized capsule carried by a helium balloon. The completion of the
mission, named Stratos, broke several records. On October 14th, 2012, Baumgartner became the first person
to break the sound barrier without an aircraft, made the record for freefall from the highest altitude, had the
longest freefall time clocked in at around 5 minutes and 35 seconds, and the highest manned balloon flight.
He clocked in at 834 mph, falling for at least 24 miles. With financial support and sponsorship from Red Bull,
Feliz Baumgartner was most definitely was given wings in his breathtaking fall back to Earth. With YouTube
streaming live, the world got to watch the record breaking jump. This made it easy to witness such a historic
occasion for those of us who didn’t bother to get out of bed.
Photo credit: http://www.forbes.com/sites/timmaurer/2012/10/18/what-felix-baumgartner-…