"Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are,"
What a way to say it.
"When I was spinning
first 10, 20 seconds, I never thought I was going to lose my life but I
was disappointed because I'm going to lose my record. I put seven years
of my life into this," he said.
He added: "In that situation, when you spin around, it's like hell and you don't know if you can get out of that spin or not. Of course, it was terrifying. I was fighting all the way down because I knew that there must be a moment where I can handle it."
Baumgartner said
traveling faster than sound is "hard to describe because you don't feel
it." The pressurized suit prevented him from feeling the rushing air or
even the loud noise he made when breaking the sound barrier.
With no reference points, "you don't know how fast you travel," he said.
Coincidentally, Baumgartner's accomplishment came on the 65th anniversary of the day that U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first man to officially break the sound barrier in a jet. Yeager, in fact, commemorated that feat on Sunday, flying in the back seat of an F-15 Eagle as it broke the sound barrier at more than 30,000 feet above California's Mojave Desert."
His what not "one small step for man", it was one gigantic leap.
And he did it.
Baumgartner's team included Joe Kittinger, who first tried to break the sound barrier from 19.5 miles up in 1960, reaching speeds of 614 mph. With Kittinger inside mission control, the two men could be heard going over technical details during the ascension.
"Our guardian angel will take care of you," Kittinger radioed to Baumgartner around the 100,000-foot mark.
After Baumgartner landed, his sponsor, Red Bull, posted a picture to Facebook of him kneeling on the ground. It generated nearly 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and more than 29,000 shares in less than 40 minutes."
Finally:
"Although he broke the
sound barrier, the highest manned-balloon flight record and became the
man to jump from the highest altitude, he failed to break Kittinger's 5
minute and 35 second longest free fall record. Baumgartner's was timed
at 4 minutes and 20 seconds in free fall.
He said he opened his parachute at 5,000 feet because that was the plan.
"I
was putting everything out there, and hope for the best and if we left
one record for Joe - hey it's fine," he said when asked if he
intentionally left the record for Kittinger to hold. "We needed Joe
Kittinger to help us break his own record, and that tells the story of
how difficult it was and how smart they were in the 60's. He is 84 years
old, and he is still so bright and intelligent and enthusiastic". More here.
A job well done.
And all the quiet world below him on that Sunday morning, now knows he did it.
Den
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