Move Over, Felix – There's A New Supersonic Skydiving Record-Holder In Town

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Google senior VP Alan Eustace has shattered Felix Baumgartner‘s skydiving record, jumping from over 130,000 feet and topping speeds of over 800 mph in a 4 1/2 minute freefall, various media outlets reported on Friday.

The 57-year-old Eustace, who was assisted on the project by officials at the Paragon Space Development Corporation’s Stratospheric Explorer (StratEx) team, “exceeded the speed of sound” during Friday’s historic leap in New Mexico, “setting off a small sonic boom, and set several skydiving records in the process,” according to BBC News.

Eustace was carried to heights of more than 25 miles above the ground by a large balloon filled with 35,000 cubic feet of helium, wrote John Markoff of The New York Times. Eustace, wearing a specially-designed spacesuit with a built-in life-support system, jumped from at an altitude of 135,890 feet (near the top of the stratosphere) at 9:09 local time, returning to Earth just 15 minutes after beginning his fall.

“It was amazing. It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before,” he told the New York Times reporter afterwards. “It was a wild, wild ride. I hugged on to the equipment module and tucked my legs and I held my heading.”

Image Above: Alan Eustace is lifted to a record-breaking 135,908 ft via high-altitude balloon, the same technology used by World View (PRNewsFoto/World View Enterprises)

The Google executive’s maximum altitude, initially reported as 135,908 feet, was officially submitted to the World Air Sports Federation as 135,890 feet based on information from two data loggers. The previous record, established during Baumgartner’s leap, was 128,100 feet, according to The New York Times.

Eustace, who is a veteran pilot and parachutist, broke world records for vertical speed reached during freefall with a peak velocity of 822mph and a total freefall distance of 123,414 feet, the BBC said. Jim Hayhurst, director of competition at the United States Parachute Association, was the official observer for the record setting attempt, according to the Associated Press (AP).

“The supersonic skydive happened with little fanfare, out of the media spotlight, unlike the 2012 attempt by daredevil Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team,” the AP pointed out. Baumgartner, who reached altitudes of 128,000 feet before beginning his freefall, had been outfitted with video cameras in order to capture the event for a BBC documentary.

Eustace, on the other hand, “planned his jump in secrecy, working for almost three years with a small group of technologists skilled in spacesuit design, life-support systems, and parachute and balloon technology,” Markoff said. “He carried modest GoPro cameras aloft, connected to his ground-control center by an off-the-shelf radio.” Unlike Baumgartner, who “was widely known for death-defying feats,” Markoff said that Eustace was “an engineer… with a deep commitment to teamwork” and that co-workers call him “a risk-taker with a passion for details.”

The StratEx program, which worked with the Google VP on the freefall attempt, was created to develop a self-contained spacesuit and recovery system that would make it possible for people to explore portions of the stratosphere above 100,000 feet, according to the outfit’s website. Such a system would allow for the development of new ways to allow astronauts to egress, new high-altitude aircraft suits, and more.

“The technology that has gone into developing the balloon, the spacesuit and the other systems that were used in Friday’s launch will be used to advance commercial spaceflight, namely efforts by Arizona-based World View Enterprises to take paying tourists up in a high-altitude balloon and luxury capsule starting in late 2016,” the AP said.

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