What an amazing feat! This certainly makes skydiving and bungee jumping—even tightrope walking in NYC–look passé. With the demise of the space shuttle, it is incredibly inspiring to see an individual take such initiative. As one media source aptly remarked, it was a “collective moment.” I certainly enjoyed a momentary diversion from my day-to-day routine, omnipresent national election coverage, and challenging world news to imagine what he experienced.
“When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data,” Baumgartner said after the jump.
Hitting—and enduring—Mach 1.24 (833.9 mph) is truly impressive.
As for having to dig deep and draw on mental reserves, he obviously had exceptional fortitude. In regard to his horrifying uncontrollable spin Baumgartner commented, “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.”
“Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are,” an exuberant Baumgartner told reporters outside mission control after the jump.
Simply amazing…
