One Austrian is ready to break two records today. Felix Baumgartner is geared to break the sound barrier with a record breaking skydive. His adventure will start in Roswell, New Mexico where he will edge space at twenty-three miles above the Earth’s surface.
The launch will start at 11:30 AM mountain standard time, to see if the winds diminish a bit to about three miles per hour. The launch was delayed from yesterday, thanks to the wind conditions. .
It’s reported that Felix Baumgartner will accelerate from zero to 690 miles per hour all within thirty-five seconds, before he becomes supersonic for a minute within the 10-minute jump. This feat isn’t normally done by humans, and it will be a first for the forty-three-year-old stuntman, who said it was his dream, “”I practiced this for so many years, and now, we are almost there, so this is my biggest dream.”
His dream seems strange to most people, because to reach 120,000 feet (which is four times higher than average passenger planes fly) above our planet Earth, he will have to ride on a special capsule that’s attached to a balloon that measures 55 stories in height.
The medical director for the stunt project, Jonathan Clark Stratos, explains “We are using a helium balloon to get to the stratosphere, but to get there we have to transit the death zone.”
The stunt will be no easy feat, and it could end with fatal results. The pressure is much lower at 120,000 feet and if his suit fails, his lungs would explode and his blood would literally boil.
Even more dangerous are the possibilities that could happen after jumping from the capsule. The ever-fluctuating temperatures and the possibility of a flat spin from a drogue chute failure or puncture in the spacesuit would also prove fatal. It’s also possible that all the life support systems could fail.
Hopefully, nothing will go wrong with Felix Baumgartner’s feat. He is brave for going on this project, especially considering the room for error and all the potential risks that come with it. Should his stunt go as planned, Felix Baumgartner will break the following records:
1- First human to break sound barrier in a free-fall
2- Highest free-fall altitude with 120,00 feet
3- Highest manned balloon at 120,000 feet
4- Longest free-fall at five minutes and 35 seconds
5- Largest manned balloon in history at 550 feet tall.
This will hopefully be an epic moment in history.
