On Sunday October 14th the impossible was done.  Felix Baumgartner jumped from 120,000 feet above the earth and rushed down at turbo speed. Felix’s goal was to break the speed of sound, freefall from highest altitude, and have the longest freefall time. In order to do it, he had put in 7 years of hardship, persistence, and dedication devoted to achieving his ambition. Although he had to go through a lot, Felix Baumgartner accomplished his dream and showed true bravery.

During the experiment, he had to go through stages in order to be successful; without completing all of these, he could have died. In the launch phase, he used a pressurized capsule and a 12 pound chest pack containing monitoring technology to reach the 120,000 feet. During the ascent phase, the temperature decreased as the balloon rocketed up. Once he got the final okay, he had to jump off the capsule or face extreme complications. He also had to pay careful attention to his step off the capsule so he didn’t lose consciousness. When he was in the stratosphere, the multiplying air molecules served as a gentle cushion or break when he flew down from the sky. As he descended, he had to wait until he’s was going a speed of 172 mph or slower in order to open his parachute. Why does it take so much work to breaking a few records?

Now I don’t know about you, but diving from 120,000 ft in the air isn’t on my list of things to do, so I don’t think Baumgartner should be attempting it. However, he did have years of testing and preparing, so I suppose he should be able to do it. Plus, I’m not one to tell him what he should and shouldn’t do. But, as you can see, this process is very dangerous and life threatening, for if you make one mistake you could die. However Felix pulled if off and this moment will be remembered as the time the impossible was done.

~Emma Takizawa