By 
October 9th, 2022
Credit: Red Bull Stratos
Ten years ago, Austrian Felix Baumgartner made one small step from the edge of space. That resulting giant leap saw him plunge to Earth faster than the speed of sound.
The Red Bull Stratos effort proved that a human could break the speed of sound in freefall, with Baumgartner setting numerous benchmarks including three official world records: Maximum Vertical Speed (1,357.6kmh, 843.6mph/Mach 1.25), Highest Exit (jump) Altitude (38,969.4m, 127.852.4ft) and Vertical Distance of Freefall (36,402.6m, 119,431.1ft.
A new documentary is being released on October 14 — “SPACE JUMP: How Red Bull Stratos Captured the World’s Attention” – is to premier on Red Bull TV.
Credit: Red Bull Stratos
Years of work
The video documents the enterprising project and the spectacular jump on Friday 14, October 2022. On that date, Baumgartner launched from Roswell, New Mexico and ascended to the stratosphere in a helium balloon and made the jump. The event was the culmination of years of work by a world-leading team of experts.
“For the first time, fans and industry experts give their perspectives, as well as those who made it happen; from the technical project director, to one of the world’s biggest internet giants, whose servers reached near-breaking point to sustain the number of viewers, and from the world record holder himself, Baumgartner,” explains a Red Bull Stratos statement.
Credit: Red Bull Stratos
Life support in space
Given more than 5 years of development, the team took head-on the challenge of dealing with life support in space; space suits now offer better mobility, and new protocols exist to protect the lives of aviators exposed to high altitude.
“The effect that it had globally on education and on the next generation wanting to become aerospace or flight test engineers was huge,” says technical project director Art Thompson. “Additionally, the life support system that we designed on the capsule we used that technology and data to change the configuration for life support for [high altitude jets including] the U-2.”
For more information on Red Bull TV, go to:
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/discover
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Posted in Space News
Alan Eustace broke the record in 2014 but Baumgartner keeps getting lots of publicity even though he wasn’t the first to jump from a balloon at high altitude.