Smashby's Training Blog

Many of you are aware of the incredible feat of the Red Bull Stratos and jumper Felix Baumgartner, this past weekend. For those you who are not, here is the summary directly from the page:

“Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space, will attempt to transcend human limits that have existed for 50 years. Supported by a team of experts Felix Baumgartner plans to ascend to 120,000 feet in a stratospheric balloon and make a freefall jump rushing toward earth at supersonic speeds before parachuting to the ground. His attempt to dare atmospheric limits holds the potential to provide valuable medical and scientific research data for future pioneers.”

Yes, you read that right. He actually ended up ascending to over 128,000 feet… before walking to the edge of his capsule, and… jumping off! Here is the summary of some of the accomplishments from the mission:

“Felix Baumgartner broke the speed of sound reaching an estimated speed of *833.9 mph (1,342.8 km/h) jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.

Felix climbed to 128,100 feet (39,045 meters) in a helium-filled balloon Sunday morning Oct. 14, 2012. This is exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket powered airplane. Felix broke two other world records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the longest freefall record to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.”

Watching this live online was probably one of the coolest things I’ve seen. I was anxious and nervous during his entire ascent as he climbed from the ground to 128,000 feet above the ground! Then, once they commenced the launch process, you got to see all the went into making this jump happen.

Then, at one point… the door to his capsule opened and you got to see just how high above the Earth he was, it was breathtaking. I am sharing a few videos below here, and I ask that you just take a second and think about how awesome this jump was for us to be able to watch.

Congrats, Felix!
The “Official” Jump Video:

This shows a bit more of the prep necessary to make this event happen:

Here’s just a full video, with music for audio, of the entire fall:

Some more shots of what Felix actually saw… breathtaking:
Probably some of my favorite shots from this video!

SO COOL!