Often I focus on mainstream sports, but today I wanted to bring attention to an amazing skydiving feat. “Fearless Felix” Baumgartner jumped from a pressurized capsule 71,580 feet in the air earlier this month. That distance equates to 13.56 miles above the Earth. During his just under 4-minute freefall, he reached speeds of 364.4 mph. From end-to-end he was falling for 8 minutes and 8 seconds.
The capsule is an amazing piece of machinery. According to Wired.com, “the capsule has a 6-foot diameter pressure vessel to provide protection from the cold air and thin oxygen. Baumgartner will inflate the pressure suit when he is ready to take his big leap. The 2,900-pound capsule will need around three hours to reach 120,000 feet.”
Despite the impressive height of this jump, Baumgartner has not yet broken the record for highest leap. That title still belongs to his mentor Joe Kittinger from Florida who has jumped from a staggering 102,800 feet (19.5 miles). However Baumgartner plans to shatter Kittinger’s record this summer with a 23 mile high jump. Ref. wired.com, wired.com Pic. Ref. wired.com
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