I say this all the time, and I’ll say it again… we’re living in a supremely interesting time.
As a species, we’re now technologically sophisticated enough to send a person into the stratosphere using a helium balloon, and have him “safely” plummet 128,000ft back to earth at over 833mph? To that I say, sweet zombie Jesus that’s cool. Felix Baumgartner has one serious set of stones on him. One small step for himself (the step isn’t very long), and one giant leap for both himself and mankind.
Red Bull, you make one extremely delicious, addictive energy drink, and you sure know how to put on a good show to boot.
Felix Baumgartner Supersonic Freefall – Mission Highlights
When it comes to space related activities, it doesn’t take much to get me all hot and bothered. I’m a firm believer in the necessity of space travel and the colonization of other planets. There are so many of us here on Earth now, and so many of us are idiots. We need a bit more space to spread out, stretch our legs, and start building bad-ass space colonies and mining asteroids. We’ll be too busy doing awesome stuff to worry about blowing each other up with cruise missiles. I mean, that’s my hope at least.
I think that visionaries like Elon Musk, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and yes… even Felix Baumgartner, who was brave enough to jump a hell of a ways down, from a hell of a ways up, all in the name of science. Well, that… and incredible fame… that too. It’s not often that a person does this sort of thing, you know.
Stratos Jump Highlights
It must have been a very long and stressful day for the entire Red Bull Stratos team, and of course Felix himself. He must have felt absolutely amazing when he landed safely back on earth many hours later in the day.
I have a feeling that this view alone made the whole thing worth it for him. Just look at that… absolutely fucking amazing. How many people get to see a view like this for themselves?
Even his suit is badass. Yes, I have a bit of a man crush on this guy, I’m fully willing to admit that.
I have to wonder, though… what’s next? A person can’t get a whole lot higher before actually, you know… reaching space. Are we going to see a person propel themselves with a rocket from say, the Moon, and then plummet through the Earth’s atmosphere like a comet? Personally, I think it’s a pretty solid idea, and something worth investigating.
Felix, I’m looking at you, bud.
