Google’s Vice-President Alan Eustace has just plummeted to the earth from a height of 135,890 feet to smash Felix Baumgartner’s world record set in 2012. The 24th of October marks the official record date, seeing Eustace ascend to toward space in a helium balloon and free-fall plummet back toward earth at over 820 miles per hour. This means he was not only able to break the sound barrier, but also knocked Baumgartner’s speed record off the top too.
The 57-year old tech executive wore a pressurized space-like suit during his two-hour climb to his great height, however the descent took a mere 15 minutes over the New Mexico desert.
I’m sure you’re wondering why you had no idea this was going on, especially seeing as Baumgartner’s record in 2012 was highly publicized and even live streamed. We’ve been told that this attempt was part of a project by the Paragon Space Development corporation, set as an exploration of the stratosphere – rather than a marketing stunt.
We’ve been told that Google did not have any part to play in this jump, Eustace decided to walk this one alone.
Image courtesy of AFP
