World’s fastest human

Felix Baumgartner is a skydiver from Austria. He’s jumped rom the outstretched arm of the statue of Christ in Rio; the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lampur; he flew solo across the English channel, wearing glider wings on his back — after preparing by strapping himself to the top of a Porsche.

And next Monday, near Roswell, New Mexico, he will climb into an 8×11 foot pressurized capsule tethered to a helium balloon, spend three hours floating to an altitude of 23 miles, and then, wearing only a space suit and a parachute, he will jump — breaking the 19 mile free-fall record set by Joe Kittinger in 1960:

“I’m delighted he’s going to break my record. I’m working to help him do it.”

But not only that, he will fall so fast that he will break the sound barrier, which no one has ever done wearing only a space suit. Imagine 690 miles an hour.

The only precedent is an accident. In 1966, a Lockheed test pilot was in an SR-71 Blackbird flying at Supersonic speed when it disintegrated. The pilot bailed out and survived. But Baumgartner is going to accelerate to supersonic speed without an aircraft around him.

Whatever happens, we’ll know instantly, because it will all be streamed live on the Internet.

And yes, he feels fear. In fact he depends on it.

“It makes you concentrated, it makes you awake. This is exactly what I need, to do a mission like this.”

To which I can only add what Joe Kittinger, who is now his mentor and ground contact, said as the last test flight took off.

“Godspeed Felix, you’re going to have fun on this one.”