In 1960, United States Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger made history by lifting off from earth in a helium balloon called Excelsior III to the height of 102,800ft / 31,333m. He did an incredibly brave and amazing thing by jumping once he reached that altitude.
This year, 2012, Red Bull
Stratos is attempting to re-write history. Felix Baumgartner will undertake a stratospheric balloon flight to
more than 120,000ft / 36,576m and make a freefall jump at supersonic speed.
In this process, he could potentially break four world records: highest manned balloon flight, freefall
from highest altitude, longest freefall and reaching supersonic speed in
freefall.
Red Bull Stratos pilot Felix
Baumgartner is an expert parachutist best known for completing an
unprecedented freefall flight across the English Channel using carbon wings
in 2003. He made his first skydive at the age of 16 as he longed and dreamed of
skydiving and flying helicopters since childhood.
Felix
Baumgartner set a record for history’s lowest BASE jump (Rio de
Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer statue), twice set world records for the highest
BASE jump from a building (Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and Taipei 101 Tower)
and even landed his canopy inside a cave in Croatia.
The LIVE mission HD broadcast stream will last between 3-4.5 hours, depending
on the weather conditions during the balloon ascent and include an English
language narrator. The target date for the mission is on Tuesday, 9th
Oct 2012, 8pm, however the final day for the launch attempt will be dictated by
perfect weather conditions.
A massive helium balloon, measuring more than 334ft. / 102m tall on
full ‘float’ height is required to ascend to the target altitude of 120,000ft.
/ 36,576m. It requires minimal winds to facilitate a successful launch,
therefore it may result in one or several days delay as it has to wait for a
favourable weather condition to precede the launch.
To announce this
mission this October, Red Bull Stratos
invited me for an unforgettable experience of indoor skydiving at iFLY Singapore, which is located at
Sentosa. Thanks Red Bull Stratos for
the ‘WOW’ treat.
We were lead to SkyLoft (level
5) for registration and a short briefing which consisted of an administrative process of some documents before proceeding for
the presentation and screening of The Stratos footage.
Mission from the Edge of Space is the extreme and world-record task by Red Bull Stratos.
Upon being seated, we were given the world's no. 1 energy drink, Red Bull. As normal practice, we did
our cam-whoring while waiting for the presentation to begin.
During the presentation, we were introduced to the mission of Red Bull Stratos, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner travels to and
will attempt to jump from the edge of the space in a stratospheric balloon. In this
expedition, he will jump from a precocious height of 120,000FT.
Light refreshment was served straight after the presentation.
After filling our stomach with some food, we were all set for our iFLY training...
Getting
ready for the iFLY experience...
It is definitely a wonderful skydiving experience and the feeling of
floating in the air gives me a care-free feeling... FREEDOM is the word to describe
me when I am not the ground. YAY!!
Kudos to everybody for making this event a successful one...
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