watching history

note: I obviously wrote this on Monday, but life, and, yea..

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yesterday I watched a 43-year-old guy jump off a ledge and hurl towards earth from the stratosphere. everything was live via Red Bull's live feed (or as live as the safety 20 second delay would allow), and I cried so hard into my pillow.



why? honestly, I'm not even sure.. but even thinking about it now I'm getting teary ᅲᅲ

it took Baumgartner almost 2½ hours to ascent to the calculated altitude and hubs followed the whole thing with great interest.
me, I was bored and entertaining myself on twitter, and it wasn't until he had reached altitude and they started the final check list run-down that I suddenly got hooked, too.

hearing him go through the steps and the delays in response to some of the major steps just went straight to my heart and I was at the edge of my seat towards the end.
of course those delays could have just been earth-to-space communication audio delays, him thinking, mobility issues due to the space suit or whatever, I know, but it could also be emotions.

there were some depressurizing hiccups and it took some tries to get the door open, and I didn't even notice I was holding my breath until the door rolled aside.

and then I started sobbing cos the the surge of emotions he must have felt was just totally overwhelming the moment that beaming atmosphere came in view.

it was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen

a few checklist steps later and he was out the door.
again there was a moment before he had to unhook his oxygen lines and the knot in my chest..

the thoughts that must have been racing though his mind as he was standing there ᅲᅲ
it made me happy when he said at the press conference later, that in that moment all thoughts about records and sound barrier didn't even enter his mind, all that mattered was getting back to his family safely.

the first thing he said when he got out of the capsule, or at least I remember it as the first thing, was "I wish you could see what I see".
I've heard that sentence or similar stuff, and watched a scene like this in tons of movies, but the realization that this is as real as things will ever get just got to me so deeply.

my empathy was seriously killing me at that point, and I felt so small and humble on his behalf, and I don't think I've ever wanted a person to succeed as badly, strange as it may sound..

he was only standing on that ledge for..probably a matter of minutes, tops, and then.. "I'm going home now"~

my entire body tensed up in that instant and I don't think I breathed for what seemed like forever..

watching a human being fall through space like that.. and omg so fast, I mean, I get that that was the whole point but just look at that timer..!
from right here to out of sight in 1 second.

the feeling when he fell to his knees omg it was pure joy end relief ᅲᅲ and obviously I'm talking about my own feelings here though I suspect he and I might have been in agreement..

in the end Baumgartner managed to break the sound barrier with a speed of 1342,8 km/h (834,4 mph), or Mach 1,24, because his jump altitude of 39045 m (128100 ft) allowed him to fall through the stratosphere where there's so little resistance that once he actually hit the atmosphere his fall was slowed during his 4,2 min freefall.

besides the sound barrier record he also managed to break the world record for highest manned balloon flight, and highest freefall.
Joe Kittinger still holds the record for longest freefall at 4,36 min cos Baumgartner had to release his parachute around 5000 ft?, a planned altitude, but by that point the freefall record still hadn't been broken
I assume it's cos his higher freefall speed made him fall much faster event though he also fell from much higher..?

if you didn't watch you missed out, you can see a very brief highlight video from Red Bull here

I'm glad other people have the courage to advance the world so I won't have to