Red Bull Stratos Mission: Is it Fearless Felix or Simply Foolish? 

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, known as “Fearless Felix” and “God of the Skies” by those who follow his dangerous stunts, will later this year attempt to break a 50-year old skydiving record set by Joseph Kittinger in 1960 when he jumped from the Excelsior III gondola at 102,800 feet (20 Miles) above sea level (to put that into perspective, a large trans-Atlantic airline would be flying at around 35,000 feet above sea level).

Baumgartner’s skydiving team, 502, have teamed up with Joseph Kittinger, a team of scientists and financial backer and sponsor, Red Bull, to help Fearless Felix push his limits farther than he or any human has attempted before. He will attempt to be the first human to reach supersonic during free-fall stepping off a transport capsule platform at the edge of space, a height of 120,000 feet or 23 miles above sea level. The purpose of the jump, other than to set new world records, is to perform research that will help in the development of the next generation of full pressure suits.

The Red Bull Stratos project has thus far been 3 years in the making to get everything just right for this historic and scientific endeavour. Baumgartner will be retrofitted with a state of the art pressure suit adjusted to 3.5 psi, capable of withstanding the predicted -73 degree temperature, automatic drogue parachutes, and tanks pumping rich 100% oxygen when his capsule reaches the launch altitude. Without this vital equipment and all the meticulous planning from some of the best minds in the world in areas of physiology, aeronautics, and engineering just to name a few – Baumgartner’s blood would boil well before attempting free-fall.

Although, even with all the brain power and planning that has gone into hopefully making the Red Bull Stratos project a potentially booming success there is still plenty of room for something disastrous to occur. And who knows what the effects of traveling beyond the sound barrier (approx. 690 mph) will have on his body?

So what do you think, a 50-year-old record, is this “Fearless Felix” or “Simply Foolish”?