Top News Online
Felix Baumgartner said he wanted the world to share his view before jumping. This video makes that a possibility.
We watched him free-fall from the edge of space. Now we see it from his perspective.
Red Bull, which sponsored skydiver Felix Baumgartner’s death-defying leap from more than 128,100 feet above Earth, just released a point-of-view video recorded with cameras on his suit earlier this week to honor the space-diving project’s anniversary.
“You can see the blackness of space. Then the purple-violet gets lighter and lighter until it’s an aqua blue and then a pale blue. It’s cool to see that transition,” Jonathan Clark, the Red Bull Stratos medical director, told the Daily News.
Baumgartner, at the age of 43, ascended 128,177.5 feet above Earth in a helium balloon and let go. He reached 843.6 mph, breaking the sound barrier before parachuting to the ground on Oct. 14 last year.
“Could you survive going through the sound barrier without an aircraft?” Clark said. “We were pretty sure he could survive, but it was right at the limit of survival … we still had doubts until he did it.”
Red Bull via YouTube
The new clip show’s Baumgartner’s plunge to Earth from his perspective, thanks to cameras placed on his suit.
The mission was exactly 65 years after pilot Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in a rocket powered airplane. But Baumgartner did one better – he reached Mach 1.25.
“Felix truly went supersonic, he didn’t just go through the sound barrier, he went supersonic,” said Clark.
RELATED: DAREDEVIL TO BREAK SOUND-BARRIER ON SKYDIVE
He also broke world records for highest free-fall and highest manned balloon flight.
The trip back to Earth lasted 9:09 minutes. He was in free-fall for 4:22 minutes when he released his parachute.
Red Bull via YouTube
New video shows all the sights and sounds from the daredevil’s incredible jump from space.
Red Bull Stratos was designed to improve scientific understanding of how our bodies react to such extreme conditions. Clark, who spent 26 years with the U.S. Navy before joining NASA, signed onto the project to help establish new protocols to protect future astronauts and aviators.
“When we did this, we were facing a 50% mortality rate,” Clark said. “In other words, half the people who tried this died.”
Five years of preparation went into the mission. Just before Baumgartner leaped, he said, “I know the whole world is watching now and I wish the world could see what I see.”
Now, with this video, we can.
mwalsh@nydailynews.com
On a mobile device? Watch the video here.
