Applied Technology Institute (ATIcourses) offers a variety of courses on Space, Satellite & Aerospace Engineering. We think the news below would be on interest to our readers. Two years ago Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from a helium balloon and fell 128,100 feet (24 miles) back to Earth at 843.6 mph. The funding was provided by Red Bull. He […]
Applied Technology Institute (ATIcourses) offers a variety of courses on
Space, Satellite & Aerospace Engineering. We think the news below would be on interest to our readers.
Two years ago Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner jumped from a helium balloon and fell 128,100 feet (24 miles) back to Earth at 843.6 mph. The funding was provided by Red Bull. He broke the sound barrier and set a world record. But Google’s senior vice president has taken the stunt new heights. Last Friday Alan Eustace road a helium balloon more than 25 miles off the ground and jumped.
The dive wasn’t sponsored by Google, though. In fact Eustace declined the company’s offer for help with the jump because he didn’t want it to be a corporate stunt. Also, Eustace didn’t use a capsule to protect him during his ascent, and he asked Paragon Space Development, the company that made his suit, to create a pared-down pressure suit that would enable him to breathe pure oxygen during his fall.
Mr. Eustace planned his jump in the utmost secrecy. He carried modest GoPro cameras aloft, connected to his ground-control center by an off-the-shelf radio.
Eustace fell farther than Baumgartner but at a slower speed of 822 mph. But he still broke the sound barrier, and observers reported hearing the sonic boom. He also did two backflips before using a parachute to steady himself.
Eustace told the Times, “It was amazing. … It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.” Well, who hasn’t seen the layers of the atmosphere? Oh right, almost everyone!
