Alan Eustace Looks Back at His Record-Breaking Freefall

In 2014, engineer and stratospheric explorer Alan Eustace ascended via balloon to the stratosphere and then took a freefall plunge of more than 135,000 feet. Why did he do it? How did he make it happen? Hear Eustace tell his story.

[@s.scirocco4411]

I just finished watching docs on Felix Baumgartner and Joe Kittenger's escapades with this very same thing. Where is all the media attention for this guy? He broke all known records for height of fall, length of fall and speed of fall. His face should have been planted all over the media of every kind!! Guess if Red Bull isn't involved it doesn't count? Kudos to this guy and his team. Truly an amazing job they did!

[@realMaverickBuckley]

It's not really that impressive is it. Joe Kittinger was doing something *no-one* even knew was possible, or had done before. Felix was just a Sky diver 'bro' who managed to pick up sponsorship to help him achieve his goal. When the gazzillionaire Google owner does it, you know everything's been done right, safely, comfortably. Just doesnt hold the same spirit I guess.

[@HitHeilerDerHohnEinerSure]

Didn't break the record for speed of fall though.

[@christiangerhardt2408]

He only broke the record for height of the jump. Baumgartner still holds two records, but I agree this needed loads more attention. I believe Red Bull looked at it and went he will not spin risk is lower nah we will not sponsor this.

[@lucasgrubertv9097]

I think he used the thing that stops spinning himself That by Felix it wloud activate after 6 secs but it did not because he is insane he really used his body and no tech by the flight

[@scriblestingray5713]

@@christiangerhardt2408 or they just already did it. why would they sponsor another mission?

[@akkadiansprayart]

Until today I though Felix held the recored I had no idea Alan jumped from higher, my mind is blown

[@churrosburritos423]

Wow, nobody knows about this jump, everybody only remember the redbull attempt 😱

[@dimitricerny6976]

My curiosity from the movie "The Aeronauts" led me here. I wanted to know who holds the record now. I was quite surprised to find that the record no longer belonged to Felix Baumgartner. Congratulations Alan Eustace on this fantastic achievement.

[@hsingfan7241]

This is such an fascinating presentation. How come there were so little audience?!!

[@popkorn256]

It wasn't well advertised. I've actually just found out!

[@johngaspardo4094]

The building that this is at is basically way outside of dc because it's huge and they keep all the biggest aircraft here. This place is huge and you could spend several days seeing everything. thank government spending for building a huge museum so far outside where anyone actually wants to visit. I went and saw several great IMAX movies on the 7 story stage. I was visiting grandma in the hospital and had the time to check out been to every museum in DC over 30 which takes about a month of time to go and you still won't see them all. Didn't see the Kennedy center

[@belindaspechtenhauser6621]

Also, our network programs no longer broadcast coverage of such events in whole of such phenomal achievement(s).. They rather broadcast Dancing with the Stars & game news. Pathetic more of society appreciates doesn't support, grasp the educational benefits & astromial benefits & wonders of space.

[@jcmartin868]

Audience and evidence. There are aspects of this jump that don't check out. His monitors claimed to witness an audible sonic boom which is not possible in unpowered flight and his fall starts with an intentional back roll?

[@kmbb267]

I can't get enough of this. Now, I hope soon someone does it again and again. It's very interesting and I hope mankind keeps learning more from these high jumps.

[@AwesomeShotStudios]

Great presentation...and I learned that you can be relatively comfortable at 100,000 ft. without supplemental heating.

[@justincase5272]

Kudos! However, the speakers keep saying, "There's no air," when -- obviously -- Alan was bouyed to altitude by the helium balloon which only works because it is displaced by air that's heavier than the net mass and volume of the balloon and cargo.

[@toohoney8674]

Really cool stuff. Adam Savage sent me here

[@JAYFLATLDN]

I only found out about this because of Netflix.

[@peitz.design]

Alan is just the nicest guy =)

[@grahamgibson4669]

Great job and a great achievement. Just felt that there wasn't much reference to the early pioneers on this kind of exploration. Kittinger/Stapp/Beaupre had done much of the work with this technology in the 1950's with no predecessor information to work off. Beaupre was the inventor of the parachute technology that this crew used for the jump and in the Kittinger jump it was unproven. The origins of the space suit were founded in the Kittinger jump and Stapp (Kittingers boss) did ground breaking work in G forces on the human body to prove to the US Airfoce that you can eject from a plane at speed greater than Mach 1. I would suggest everyone read Craig Ryans two books on Kittinger and, if you can find it, the National Geographic book "The Long Lonley Leap" by Kittinger and Martin Caidin written in 1961! I would like someone like Ron Howard to do a movie on Kittinger's life sometime before he passes. He was also a POW in the Vietnam war, which in itself is a remarkable story. Kittingers's jump was 102,800 ft using 1950's technology.

[@donkroh4986]

Awesome.

[@kellybyrne7222]

I wish I would have known about this. I watched Felix do it live. I just found out that his record got beat in such a brilliant way!

[@sv2296]

What a legend

[@ramjetbusar1972]

Bueno sí, todo muy discreto y sin necesidad de despliegue mediático, pero por qué, un proyecto para qué. Me encantó demasiado el de Félix porque nos explicaron a todos de todo y pues claro la emoción del despliegue, queríamos y necesitábamos ser informados, las hazañas se cuenta así. Éxitos.

[@RareEarth70]

I live close to the Udvar-Hazdy center; wish I would have paid attention and known this was happening!

[@mikebarrows8344]

I finished this movie really good, it's interesting how all of them pulled it off,

[@willierants5880]

Great video, it shows clearly just how complex this lift and drop was. It was far more complex and dangerous than the Red Bull drop in my opinion. Wow, what balls of steel! Well done to everyone involved.

[@attilagyuris4194]

What was the size ( sq ft) of Alan’s main parachute? What about the reserve parachute? Who was the manufacturer?

[@kjrayk9869]

Picard was the first up high with a balloon. the first to see the earth from space, or upper atmosphere I'm not sure how high he went but it was amazing for the time.

[@olliojenarter]

Jean Luc? 😜

[@lazydayhohum]

For ever my idol!

[@attilagyuris4194]

High how did the empty balloon go up to before it was brought down?

[@attilagyuris4194]

How long did it take for the empty balloon to float down to earth after the det cord was used ?

[@Wutzmename]

*_I just came for the spin solution but stayed for the rest._*

[@joecarter8470]

Had some great flat earth footage.... Noice

[@aurelzoldi9864]

I'm curious if after you break the sound barrier, can you hear your thoughts?!

[@keithmanfredi]

LOL nice

[@vvoid670]

Wat happens then to the helium balloon and spreader bar?

[@christianbarnay2499]

That's answered at the very end of the video. They remotely opened it to release the helium and let it fall to the ground in a desert area, coordinating with FAA to ensure it doesn't hit an airplane on the way down. Then they sent trucks on site to collect it.

[@Kristinapedia]

I NEVER EVER KNEW someone else did this jump! I'm guessing alan didnt have the same sponsorship felix had?

[@Diamondback338]

Google offered to sponsor it and he turned it down worried that it would become a media stunt.

[@classycurt]

Yea he is a Senior VP at Google and multi-millionaire. Funding wasn't as much of an issue for him.

[@duffman18]

He didn't want to do it to become famous or anything like that. He just wanted to do it cos it sounded fun, and so they could do all sorts of scientific tests up there while he was there. It's a lot more extreme of a thing to do than, say, climbing Everest for example. Loads of very wealthy people climb Mount everest, it's no big deal anymore (climbing K2 would be though, as that's significantly harder to climb, it's the hardest mountain to climb in the world, but nobody seems to care about it cos it's technically not as tall). But it's going to near-space is something very very few people have ever done. So he did that. He had a good idea, which was to not even build a gondola at all like everybody else had done, and instead just strap his body in the pressure suit straight to the balloon. Which frankly makes it sound impossible that he got as high as he did considering his absolutely enormous balls were weighing him down. But yeah instead of trying to use exotic materials to build an ultra light but still ultra strong gondola, just get rid of the gondola entirely. And it worked. Considering he had zero experience with skydiving or with any kind of extreme sports or stunts, it's pretty insane how ballsy he was to do this. It's terrifying even for the experienced skydivers who tried to do it, like Baumgartner, and even Joe Kittinger who was a highly trained jet fighter pilot who'd been in a lot of scary situations where he could have very easily died. Jumping from the stratosphere is terrifying to everyone. But at least the other guys had gondolas to protect themselves and make them feel a bit more secure. I hope other people try and beat the record too though. We learn new things any time someone goes up there to try and break the record. New science is discovered.

[@APotatoWT]

Insane jump

[@suvijoensuu7649]

insane!

[@kurtisthrasher]

What company took you to the stratosphere?

[@maintayne]

One of the most interesting videos I've watched in a while

[@valhalladigitalmedia9002]

lol the redbull jump was an example of how extreme athletes do things. this is an example of how engineers do it. lol super nerds

[@thembelandesi4741]

Makes me respect Felix even more that he didn't pass out with all that dangerous spinning. I remember Felix saying that was tough.

[@zohaibkashif]

@@thembelandesi4741 me too.

[@davidhepburn9328]

Why do pilots fly planes horizontal or slightly elevated if the earth is curved

[@jasonunwin5422]

I was pricing helium a couple days ago for a youth group trying to do a High Altitude Balloon flight just using a small weather balloon . It averaged about $1.12 per cubic foot. 11 million cubic feet of helium for his balloon would bust our budget. ;-)

[@RWBHere]

That's $1.12 per cubic foot for small quantities at sea level. They would negotiate a lower price for large quantities of gas. Furthermore, that balloon was holding a lot less than 11 million cubic feet of Helium at launch. Look at the size of the inflated part at launch. Only at high altitude would it expand to fill up the 11 million cubic foot balloon. The gas would still be beyond most peoples' budget, but not $12 million.

[@Maisonier]

what about hydrogen?

[@nw2s]

I don't think it started out as 11MM ft^3 - It expanded that large at the low atmospheric pressure at altitude.

[@Tater_Lord]

You don't fill the balloon completely with helium you only partially fill so that when the balloon rises when the helium expands it doesn't immediately explode the balloon

[@marguskiis7711]

Why not to use hydrogen?

[@Show__Dont__Tell]

did i see terence tao there?

[@David-uq2uk]

I could do this . If you knock off 134,000 feet

[@user-db6el7eb9p]

Why is the camera view so much worse than the one with Felix?

[@escaton74]

I guess Felix just did it for the cameras, plus Red Bull made sure the view on thier logo was clear

[@oso223s2]

Why was he the only one wearing a space suit and also shouldn’t all 3 of them have the record?

[@tomseeberg6509]

I hope to see a guy jumping from above 200 000 feet. I think it is possible if the balloon is big enough. Voow that will be a breathtaking moment to go over 200 000 feet. How many MACH,s will you do on a jump like that. Maybe 2,5 or 3,0?? Is there anybody out there who will try to make it up to 200K?? I think it is!!But there is a thing about how much airpressure you will have up there, it will be incredible low so I hope a balloon can get up that high. I heard about a guy who talked on the net about using a small rocketplane and go right up to as much as it gets and then jump out. What will happen to the plane will be a problem because you will never know where it comes down to. It might hurt somebody so the idea is very very craxy.

[@jfcc9086com]

I watched Felix Baumgartner so many times. Alan Eustace beat the space suit out of him???? W-5? No capsule. 20 rpm, not 90 re-entry. The parachute pole. Twice as safe. WTG! There where a maximum of 15 people watching the live presentation. One watching his cell. Well. Ty!!! I think Eustace was in the Heliosphere.

[@charleshultquist9233]

If there's no air for the drone chute how can there be a sonic boom?

[@jarilinton4653]

Charles Hultquist. From my understanding there is no air initially in the higher levels of the stratosphere however once gravity takes over and Alan reaches a lower altitude, the atmosphere then allows for a sonic boom.

[@tmst2199]

26:20: Eustace's worst landing at normal speed.

[@lukegreen5341]

Look At The Size Of This Helium Balloon. It's Big. X

[@KingJoseph043]

I dont understand, this is the new record? But it is recorded with a cctv? Felix recordings has better resolution then this.

[@mrsmd4616]

I had no idea someone did it after Felix. Wtf

[@David-uq2uk]

So the next record needs to be 140,000 feet but no takers in 5 years

[@bernhardsonn8996]

12:50 why did they do that... No ok. Would have been nice for all Austrians if Baumgartner held the record.

[@alicehaynes1867]

me watching the audience: 👁👄👁

[@subseeker]

Felix is The Man

[@sedatsimsek72]

OMGGGGGGGG

[@andyp5706]

"Alan was in a spacesuit and it had ALL SORTS of oxygen in it" I only thought there was one type of oxygen. where are all these other sorts of oxygen from?

[@keithmanfredi]

Ozone may be one of them.

[@jcmartin868]

CO has oxygen too....just don't breathe it

[@Aashiqz]

This look more genuine compared to that 'Red Bull' jumb !!

[@jamesestrada82]

Baumgar's jump was much more impressive and dangerous, as he didn't have the advantage of a drogue parachute. Nonetheless, props to Eustace for pursuing this crazy jump in his late 50's 😳 +1 on Daredevil 👨‍🚀 vs Engineer 👨🏼‍🚀

[@DonnierDarko223]

Yea. I am not surprised he didn't get much attention. He is smart and accomplished and seems like a genuine man. However, he is boring.

[@insidetv1979]

Pisses me off that Bum Gardener gets more publicity and it's not the actual record breaking jump!

[@christianbarnay2499]

Alan improved the record 2 years after Felix. He also made it in a much safer way with the objective to collect a lot of useful information, not as a daredevil advertising stunt with millions thrown in marketing.