Alan Eustace leapt to Earth from the edge of the stratosphere wearing only a spacesuit, shattering skydiving records and potentially revolutionizing the commercial space industry.
Why you should listen
Two years after Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule in the stratosphere for Red Bull, a quiet group led by now-retired Google exec Alan Eustace beat the height record -- without a capsule. (Neither livestreamed nor promoted, the jump record was announced the next day.) In a custom 500-pound spacesuit, Eustace was strapped to a weather balloon, and rose to a height of over 135,000 feet, where he dove to Earth at speeds exceeding 821 mph -- breaking both the sound barrier and previous records for high-altitude jumps.
Leading up to this jump, Eustace and his partners in StratEx had spent years solving a key problem of stratosphere exploration: returning human beings to Earth from the edge of space using minimal life-support systems. In the process, they’ve opened the door to cheaper and safer near-space travel.
What others say
I think they’re putting a little lookout tower at the edge of space that the common man can share.
Alan Eustace’s TED Talk
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Crazy things people do … in the name of science
March 17, 2015
In 2014, Google's Alan Eustace strapped himself to a weather balloon, soared to a height of 135,000 feet … and then jumped -- all for science. Read more about his experiment ... and about 9 others who merrily pushed the boundaries in the name of their work.
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