Space Jump

Late last week a man named, Felix Baumgartner, was higher than anyone has ever been on Earth without the use of a rocket. Setting a world record of the highest free fall and the fastest free fall ever. Thanks to Red Bull, he was able to accomplish this mission at the age of 43.

How did he get up there?
Well he used what many scientists use in order to get data about the atmosphere, except Felix used one that was bigger than the rest. It's called a weather balloon. The type of gas that goes into a weather balloon that makes it able to go so high is known as helium. Yes, the same "stuff" that you take out of a balloon at a party that makes your voice get all squeaky. After getting a massive balloon and filling it up with helium, they had a capsule attached to it so it could carry Felix 24 miles up into the air (Llorca).

What did he he do to accomplish his goals?
Going up so high, Felix had only one option. Jump. He stood at the end of his capsule and took a leap of faith at the edge of Earth. During the beginning of Felix's jump, he was unstable in the air. He was spinning wildly, but after a short amount of time he was able to fixate himself and gain control over his body. At this time, his goal was to break the world's fastest free fall, which he did so. Here is what Juan Carlos Llorca who wrote an article about Felix's record setting jump said about his glory.

Felix Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph, according to preliminary data, and became the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth.

That's an incredible high speed fall! The best way to put this into something that is easier to think about: get two people to stand about 3 football fields away from each other. Then, have one of you clap. If you do this you will see the person clap their hands together before you hear the sound of their clap if it's loud enough. Now think of this, when that same person claps their hand Felix will have traveled to you before you even would have heard the clap because he exceeded the speed of sound about a quarter more. That's a lot of distance to cover and he would definitely look like Superman if he flew by you like that.

People like to call this the Space Jump because when you're up that high, you're practically in space. If you Felix were to keep going another 75 miles up he would be where only space shuttles can reach. The reason behind people saying Felix was practically in space is because without a space shuttle, you're not getting any higher.

It's my time to jump on out of this.
This is BE#10
Signing out...

Works Cited

Llorca, Juan C. "Felix Baumgartner Completes Record-Setting Jump." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Oct. 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/14/felix-baumgartner-jump-redbull-skydive_n_1965299.html>.