Ten years since Baumgartner’s achievement: the man who jumped from space

Sometimes in five years the ideas are already clear. In 1974, in Salzburg, little Felix scribbles his future on a piece of paper. He takes him to his mother, who widens her eyes: with the colored felt-tip pen she outlines his face as he flings himself off one. Space ship. Mrs. Baumgartner laughs at that. He could not know that his son after thirty-eight years would do so for real.

He’s the kind who feeds on self-adrenaline. He pumps it into his vein like a bio-anaesthetic, jumping off dizzying towers and running away before the police catch him. do it Acrobat or clown and the Extreme skydiver. Office work is definitely not part of his plans. But he has to study, and a lot, to begin to consider this project so that it can be thought of.

to me Roswell, New Mexico, there is all the silence you need to change your thoughts from the past five years. Those who served him in preparation for the launch of stratosphereWith the help of the team Red Bull. Jumping off such a trampoline is such a daring idea that it’s abrasive. There are hundreds of variables included in that gigantic earth pool dive. It only takes half a barrel to send to the builder. Felix knows the stakes. He knows the pain it can cause in bankruptcy: October 19, 2012 – Ten years ago – His mother has a pool of tears instead of her face. His fiancée is breathing heavily. Friends for life know it might be the last they see of him. However, Felix feels that if he doesn’t make the leap – he later declares – he will be miserable forever.

not improvise. He’s completed two tests and they’ve been going pretty well, even if the distance isn’t even remotely comparable. Then the fateful one begins Climb into that suffocating capsule: Now no, he can’t escape anymore. Three hours zipped in there, a spacesuit to mute your thoughts. When he finally appears on the edge of the world, he seems to have second thoughts. Thirty seconds pass before a decision is made. Either way, the hatch is open, he can’t go back in again.

Then it takes off. Descent is twenty seconds delayed, because if he dies in the attempt he must not be seen by the world. More than two million people are connected to YouTube. The beginning is comfortable, but then something starts to fall apart: Fog mask up So quickly, that Felix could no longer see anything. Think of an electrical fault. It asks you to turn it off and on remotely. At the base they have a drawback: it may not work. Instead it starts again. This was not the biggest problem. Baumgartner pierces the sky like a bullet. come down to 4 minutes twenty seconds in totalsometime exceeding the speed of sound: 1357.64 km / h. It can be hard for a human being to bear, even if it is properly put off. The screwing begins. It seems he no longer has control. If she faints from the pressure, it’s over.

However, five years of careful preparation are doing their job. Baumgartner manages to open the parachute and glide briskly to the ground: it’s an absolute record etched in human history, the moon landing in reverse, the sheer insanity of an athlete on fire. Everyone celebrates in the evening at the base camp. The next morning he’ll run away from there, he’ll contemplate the dawning of that deafening desert and then head to Albuquerque for a cup of coffee like anyone. On TV they release it for Consolidated Networks. Felix closes his eyelids and opens the paper crumpled in his mind: He really did. He already knew that thirty-eight years ago.