It was out of this world. Yesterday Felix Baumgartner, extreme athlete and owner of the some rather large balls, jumped out of a capsule that was lofted to a height of 39,045 metres (or 128,100 feet) above the Earth’s surface. This was Red Bull Stratos at its zenith. At that point, more than 8 million viewers watched the YouTube live stream of Baumgartner free falling into the record books.
He registered world records for the highest manned balloon flight, the longest distance in free fall, and fastest speed of free fall. At 1,342 kilometres per hour (or 834 mph), Baumgartner became the first person in the world to break the sound barrier with his body! Not all the records were broken though. His free fall of 4 minutes and 19 seconds was 17 seconds shy of Joseph Kittinger’s historic jump in 1960.
While recordings of the broadcast are available on YouTube, we’ve not been privy to any of the footage from the cameras attached to his limbs. That will most likely make its way into the documentaries due out in a month. However, it seems an Austrian TV station has gotten hold of some video captured by Baumgartner’s chest pack camera as he plummeted towards the Earth. Watch it below. It’ll make your head spin.
UPDATE: Red Bull has released a video clip that shows views from Baumgartner’s chest-cam and the cameras attached to this thighs.
[via The Verge]