Skydiving from Space!

Part of our Series: Crazy Cool Stuff from Around the Web

Red Bull- the beverage, racing and extreme sports company, is engineering the world’s highest skydive attempt. The current skydiving record has been standing since 1960 when the US was developing their space program.

The jump in 1960? 102,000 feet.

The target for the 2012 jump? 120,000 feet. Yes, that is the edge of space.

Check out CGI 3D Digital Preview Video for Red Bull’s Record Attempt.

About the jump:

Felix Baumgartner, a former Austrian Special Forces team member, will be making the jump. Felix owns the record for both the highest and lowest recorded BASE jumps. That’s jumping off a something like building or bridge with a parachute; extremely dangerous.

Felix will be aided by Red Bull’s team of 140 aerospace engineers, doctors and scientists who have developed the specialized equipment and planned the mission with surgical precision. He will reach the height of 120,000 feet, nearly 3 times higher than a commercial airliner, with aide of a specialized helium balloon.

Upon reaching max altitude and taking the leap, Felix will only be protected by his custom built space-suit when he reaches speeds of 690 mph and temperatures reaching -70F. In free-fall Felix will become the first human to break the sound-barrier without aide of a protective vessel; all he will have to rely on is his space suit to defend against the 1% atmosphere and the effects of a sonic-boom.

At PARTsolutions we are always inspired engineering feats and creative solutions for uncommon problems. We find this video especially cool because it is like an amplified version of the 3D digital previews we create for our customers every day. This gives a digital “preview” of the mission in a similar way to how we create 3D digital previews for our customers parts and components.