I watched it live. I turned it on while he was still assending. It took him over two hours for the balloon to reach its maximum height, about 25 miles up. That's 128,000 feet up people. As soon as he opened the door and sat on the jumping platform, I was a mess. I was standing up, pacing back and forth, saying prayers. I have no idea how his wife stayed so calm the entire time. When he jumped and started to freefall, my heart was in my throat. I was so scared. Then, after about two minutes of a completely freefall, he started talking to mission control. I started crying hysterically. (Yes, I'm a crier.) Watching him float through the air was awe-inspiring.
Joseph Kittinger, the man who previously held most of the records Baumgartner was trying to break was the only voice that Baumgartner could hear during the ascent and descent. I loved when Kittinger said "I couldn't have done it better myself."
It is things like this that remind me how absolutely amazing human beings are. We reach for the horizons and can accomplish anything we put our minds too. Thank you Felix for reminding us all how truly amazing we can be.
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| "I wish the world could see what I see right now." |
This was really cool! How it's possible to survive that is amazing.
ReplyDeleteIt really is amazing what the human body can withstand.
DeleteOh my gosh, I totally saw this live. I was SOOOO nervous for him- I am TERRIFIED of heights. I can't even imagine. It almost brought tears to my eyes when he landed perfectly on his feet!
ReplyDeleteI got vertigo when they would show the capsule from above. Ugh, thought I was going to be sick. I'm pretty sure when he landed my son thought I was nuts. I was jumping up and down, hooting and hollering, balling my eyes out. Amazing.
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