In a giant dive from more than 38 kilometers up, and a daredevil sky diver shattered the sound barrier last Sunday while making the highest jump ever then landing in a New Mexico desert. Felix Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24. Now that is a speed that I believe is around 630 miles per hour. That is amazing to say the least. Imagine travelling at faster than the speed of light.
From being within this capsule and slowly moving out of the capsule - to then making that descending lift off. It would have been something to see what he saw as he was closer to the orbit into space than the earth. I was amazed when watching the portion where he was preparing to jump – and then making that sky dive and then amazingly landing with such ease on his feet. I would imagine that he did get that perspective of seeing how small we are while he sat and looked down before declining to earth. The prize that he has is not one that many of us get the chance to do (to say the least) yet I am sure that he shall be engrained with him for the rest of his life.
Felix’s whom hails from Australia performed this sky jump on the 65th anniversary of an American Air Force test pilot named Chuck Yeager whom was the first to break the sound barrier. And even Chuck at the age of 89 went up into the skies with his jet and if my memory serves me correctly he too went up and did it again. It was a day where mission impossible came to be a mission in control. Good control if you ask me.
These are the things which fascinate me. I don’t consider them to be daredevils – as it seems to me both of these two were challenging themselves. Felix next desire is to be an emergency medical helicopter pilot and Chuck’s ambition is to have proved he could do it for a second time at an age which is truly something.
In the word’s so well put by Neil Armstrong, “Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand.”
