A bird's eye view of the very fine line between life and death!

In an update to my recent post on the subject of the awe-inspiring dive from the vacuum of the edge of space by Felix Baumgartner, I came across new Red Bull Stratos bird's eye video of what he saw during the free fall. This is what I really wanted to see, especially as I still hadn't heard what he experienced, if anything, as he broke the sound barrier. 

It's quite something to hear him go from almost pristine silence into the whoosh of the vortex at such speed and see what he saw during that terrifying tailspin that could have ended his life had something gone wrong or he had not been able to stabilize himself. 

At first, it seemed to be inversed, in that he appears perfectly still and it is the world that is suddenly revolving out of control, until you realize that of course the camera is on him so it's the view of the globe beneath that is in motion.  That must have been an experience truly definable as a once-in-a-lifetime affair, not least because you never want to go through it again.

"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. The only thing you want is to come back alive."

I can understand that sentiment completely, because if one thing had gone wrong, he was a goner. The technology in that suit must be something to be able to withstand speeds in excess of 800 miles per hour, and the G-forces he experienced coming down. It is also kind of mind-blowing that Joe Kittinger effectively did more or less same thing, skydiving from almost 20 miles up, as far back as 1960! 

All in all, this achievement is a landmark and needs to be remembered in the same way that we commemorated the 65th anniversary of Chuck Yeager's first supersonic flight, which ironically was on the same day as Baumgartner's record-breaking jump. But it's one thing to go supersonic inside a vehicle of some sort, but to break the sound barrier exposed out there in the rarefied atmosphere of the edge of space, well, wow!

For some unknown reason, I still don't know whether he heard anything unusual as he broke the sound barrier, and I have not heard him asked about that in any interviews by any of the many who spoke with him since. Maybe something as small as a human body that does not have a metallic skin on the outside doesn't actually create a sonic boom?

Anyway, I guess after watching that heroic fall from the edge of space, feeling in absolute awe, I can hardly claim that cleaning the chateau is beyond me on this sunny Autumn Friday. Fine, so where's that sound barrier-challenging vacuum cleaner that the cat reaches almost supersonic speeds racing away from?! - Kevin Mc ;)