‘Only one way for the blood to leave your skull': Meet the man who jumped to Earth from the edge of space

Indian Express

3 days ago

On October 14, 2012, Felix Baumgartner made history by becoming the first human to break the speed of sound in freefall. As part of the mission, he ascended to the stratosphere in a helium balloon, wearing a specially designed space suit.
From an altitude of 128,100 feet (39 km), he stepped off the capsule into the vast emptiness, embarking on a skydive that would push the limits of human endurance and technology. However, the jump was not without its challenges—Baumgartner entered a dangerous spin that could have jeopardized the mission and his life.
Reflecting on his experience, he shares what it truly felt like to jump from the edge of space.
'I'm the guy who jumped from space,' Baumgartner recalls in a video. 'I wanted to be the first human outside of an aircraft breaking the sound barrier.'
The ascent was a feat in itself—climbing nearly 40 kilometres above Earth in a balloon was a mental and physical test. As he prepared to exit, he carried twice his normal weight due to the bulky pressurised suit, making even a perfect jump difficult. 'It's very difficult to do a perfect exit. Do not over-rotate because if I start over-rotating, there's no air that you can use to slow down.'
Baumgartner stepped off the capsule, beginning his descent back to Earth. For the first few moments, everything seemed under control. 'For the first 25 seconds, it looked like everything was under control.'
Then, after 34 seconds of freefall, he achieved something no human had ever done before: 'I hit Mach 1 and I broke the speed of sound.' At that moment, he became the fastest man in freefall, reaching a maximum velocity of 843.6 mph (1,357.6 km/h).
However, scientists had warned about the possibility of an uncontrollable spin. 'A lot of those scientists said prior to the jump, 'You're going to spin like crazy.' And the other half said, 'We don't think anything is going to happen.' I was mentally prepared to spin, but I was hoping that I wouldn't.'
Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario began to unfold. 'Now, if you watch the next couple of seconds, you see at that moment, he slowly starts to spin. It's getting faster.' The rotation became violent, and he had no air resistance to stabilise himself. 'There's no protocol. There's nobody in the world telling you, 'Felix, if this happens, you have to do this,' while the whole world is watching.'
His body was being pulled by extreme G-forces, pushing blood away from his brain. 'Speed: 600 miles per hour. There's only one way for the blood to leave your skull, and that's through your eyeballs. If that happens, you're gonna die.'
In a split-second decision, Baumgartner relied on the emergency safety system designed to counteract spins. 'I had a G-Wiz attached to my hand. A G-Wiz is a device that fires a drogue chute that pulls you out of that flat spin. That's why I put my hands in.' His instinctive reaction worked: 'The trick is that the G-Wiz senses less G-force, and that means I'm getting it under control. I turned around, and I was stable as well.'
As he descended further, he noticed a change in his surroundings. 'Look at the sky—it's blue now. So we went from black sky back to blue sky.' Nearing the lower atmosphere, he saw flares dropped by his support team to indicate wind direction. 'Luke was dropping some flares, and it gave me the perfect direction for the winds.'
Finally, he deployed his parachute and landed safely in the New Mexico desert. 'For the very first time, after hours and hours inside that spacesuit, I'm breathing regular air.' He had done it. The mission was a success. 'Now I'm really happy because even the landing worked just perfect.'