YJL

It’s been almost a month since (October 14, 2012) Austrian Felix Baumgartner of Red Bull Stratos [Wikipedia] project became first human broke sound barrier without any engine power but only with gravity.

When I first read this on news, my thought was this guy really had guts. Even if you offer me a million dollars for the same jump, no way I would be crazy enough to do that.

Not until I watched the documentary Space Dive, co-produced by BBC, National Geographic Channel, and Red Bull, to understand how much at stake. You have to watch it to see how much it took for him to perform that jump. Not just the monetary cost, time, science, and engineering, but also the strength, mentality, and lives. All those for 4 minutes and 19 seconds.

I didn’t catch the moment live, even I knew it’s live on YouTube. I knew it’s important record in human history, but it never occurred to me that breaking the sound barrier was part of the jump, I only thought he’d be fastest person to travel without engine. If I had been aware of that, I certainly would watch it live. 65 years ago, October 14, 1947, Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager was the first confirmed person to break sound barrier. I wasn’t born, now I missed this chance.

I am a space sci-fi fan, when I read the news, I recalled the jump scene from Star Trek. I could feel the inner nerd soul was warping in at Warp 9.975, the space sci-fi on screen has been gone for a year, I would say by my definition. For fiction and reality, this jump is an inspiration.

The project’s success didn’t come easy, over-budget, missing deadline for years, team leader changes, even Felix gave up because lack of confidence.

Even with successful launch of balloon, it’s almost close to be about when Felix concerned the heating of visor, which would affect his ability to see through visor. And after his jumped, his visor did fog up again.

In one test jump, Felix accidentally cut away his main parachute and couldn’t find the handle of reserve immediately. Of course, he found it, eventually, or the news would be telling different story.

Beside Felix’s life was at risk, the project could have lost a team member when they first tested the suit with pressure. Felix’s jump buddy, lost conscious and fell off plane due to lack of oxygen while waiting Felix. He couldn’t remember he did the jump, in fact, he didn’t. Luckily, he regained consciousness in the air.

This jump broke several records and I believe it provide very valuable data to be used in the future. It took 52 years (August 16, 1960—October, 14, 2012) to break the records of Joseph Kittinger, when will Felix’s records to be broken?