Even the most daring adrenaline junkie's palms sweat at the thought of skydiving.
And, while the average skydive takes place from a height of around 10,000ft, it pales in comparison to a 10-year-old record-breaking jump.
Daredevil Who Broke The Sound Barrier Jumping From Space
(Photo : NASA/Unsplash)
Daredevil Felix Baumgartner, now 53, jumped from the edge of space on this day in 2012, armed only with a pressure suit, a parachute, and steel nerves.
He fell for more than four minutes, reaching dizzying speeds of 843.6mph and breaking the sound barrier before opening his parachute and safely gliding down to land in New Mexico.
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of his jump, MailOnline spoke with Baumgartner, who described the terrifying stunt and why he would never do it again.
Baumgartner was a skilled skydiver who had completed thousands of jumps before deciding to go to space.
Captain Joe Kittinger, a retired fighter pilot who jumped to Earth from 102,800 feet in 1960, was his inspiration.
He told MailOnline, "As a skydiver, you always want to push the envelope. You're always wondering, 'What else can I do?' Can you go faster? Going higher? It's always floating around."
Baumgartner had previously collaborated with Red Bull on base jumps and approached them with the idea of jumping from space.
"We took on the challenge of finding the right people because of all the trust I'd built with Red Bull through base jumps," he explained.
This included Joe Kittinger, his inspiration, who agreed to assist him.
"Joe made it very clear the first time I met him: I'm interested, but only if you take it seriously.' You can't go from 0 to hero overnight. We must proceed with caution."
The two years that followed were filled with meticulous planning and testing, which was not always easy.
Baumgartner's plan was simple: he'd board the Red Bull Stratos capsule wearing a pressurized suit before soaring up to the edge of space, guided by a helium balloon.
The daredevil would open the capsule door and jump once he reached an altitude of 114,829ft (35,000 meters), freefalling for four minutes before opening his parachute and gliding to the ground.
While the entire mission would take less than three hours, Mr. Baumgartner was aware of several potential problems.
"It's a harsh environment up there. If the suit fails, your blood will boil and you will die in 15 seconds," he explained.
He also noted other problems, such as possible issues with th parachute, or "you could flat spin, pushing all of your blood into your skull."
Following a doctor's briefing, Mr. Baumgartner was given the "good news" that if something went wrong, "it would only take 15 seconds to die."
The launch was originally scheduled for October 9, 2012, but was canceled due to inclement weather.
"The first test was canceled, and we only had one spare balloon," Baumgartner explained. We would have had to wait another six months if the second test had failed.
Fortunately, Baumgartner awoke on October 14 to better weather and felt optimistic about the second launch attempt.
He described waking up at 2 a.m. and going to mission control to do the weather brief and medical tests.
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What Were The Risks Of Felix Baumgartner's Jump?
External Influence- Baumgartner's body could be subjected to some horrible things if his pressure suit loses pressurization, as per Forbes Magazine.
Water boils at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C) above 63,000 feet (known as the Armstrong Line) due to ambient air pressure - the temperature of the human body.
When exposed to ambient outside pressure, bodily liquids (particularly saliva, tears, and liquids wetting the alvioli in the lungs) can boil.
Because of the elastic pressure of the blood vessels, the blood will not boil, but the damage will have been done.
Problems with balloon stress-. The balloon is 0.0008 inches thick (roughly the thickness of a plastic dry cleaner bag) and can cause a variety of problems.
It's possible that it was nicked on the ground. Extreme temperature variations passing through the tropopause may stress it.
Any damage caused by the ground or the ascent will only worsen with altitude as conditions become more extreme, potentially leading to the balloon's catastrophic failure.
Supersonic velocity-. Someone with a stronger physics background can confirm this, but the colliding forces caused by a body breaking the sound barrier could be quite dramatic.
These forces are much less powerful in the stratosphere, but there was still the possibility of a problem. Air can collide with the force of an explosion at lower altitudes.
Ultraviolet radiation- UV radiation is 100,000 times stronger at 120,000 feet than it is on the ground. Felix should only have a brief exposure, so this is unlikely to be a major issue.
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