Alan Eustace, senior vice president of search at Google, took off in a hot air balloon to a height of 41 kilometers and dropped from there a vertical free fall that reached a peak speed of 1,280 km. Those present on the ground heard the supersonic boom very well.
By Tim Reyes, Universe Today
Google's vice president for search, Alan Eustace (ALAN EUSTACE) broke the record yesterday (October 24, 2014) by falling from the stratosphere. It took off from Roswell, New Mexico where the first record was set in 1961 by Colonel Joseph Kittinger of the US Air Force. Alain Eustace kept the project a secret until its execution, unlike the buildup of his Austrian predecessor Felix Baumgartner who jumped from a hot air balloon in October 2012. Eustace took a minimalist approach to the jump. His equipment consisted of a balloon filled with helium and only him jumping out of the balloon in a space suit. This easy arrangement allowed it to reach a height of 135,890 feet above the Earth's surface, or over 41 kilometers, thus breaking Baum Gartner's record of 7,000 feet (38 kilometers).
The high altitude allowed by the simple design of the balloon brought it to a speed of over 1,280 km/h and created a loud boom that was well heard by those present on the ground.
The 57-year-old Eustace is a senior vice president at Google, responsible for the knowledge division. He has a pilot's license but is not known to go all the way. Eustace grew up in Florida and said his childhood was full of trips to Cape Canaveral to watch NASA launches. Eustace had been contemplating achieving the record for some time.
As strange as it may sound, this is only the third jump from a balloon that brought the jumpers into the stratosphere (height of over 100 thousand feet). All three were made from Roswell New Mexico. Kittinger jumped in 1961, Baumgartner in 2012 and Yosts in 2014. Another attempt was made in 1966 from a height of 123 feet, but ended in failure and the death of the jumper Nicholas Piandanida.
Eustace's journey to the upper atmosphere took two hours. During all this time he had to stand without moving to avoid overheating. His space suit had minimal capacity to cool his body during the ascent. While the temperature in the stratosphere reaches minus seventy degrees Celsius, the atmosphere there is very thin and a body cannot radiate the heat out.
Without a capsule like Baumgartner and Kittinger had before him, he relied solely on the space suit custom-built for him by Paragon Space Development, a supplier of life support equipment. The simple design allowed it to overtake Baumgartner by more than 7,000 feet, or more than 3 kilometers.
Eustace also sets a new record for the height reached by a light aircraft, manned or unmanned. The height record reached by unmanned balloons was achieved in 2002 from the Senrico Balloon Center in Ufunato, Japan. This record stands at 173,900 feet. To break the record required a boost in technology. In our time, there are many ways to push the edge of technology.
Alan Eustace joins other Google executives who have made extraordinary flights. He himself has already flown a Dornier Alpha jet plane, which is owned by Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and CEO Eric Schmidt. Since 2007, the plane has been parked at the Moft Field runway in Mountain View, California. Google renovated and maintains the field for NASA and in return it gets the option of using it for its executive planes.
Google executives are no strangers to the field of high altitude flight. Near the company's headquarters at Moft Field, in Mountain View, California, a small group of executives use a German jet plane called the Dornier Alpha. In collaboration with NASA's Ames Center, the plane was used to study the upper atmosphere and may also have been used for aerial photography of the San Francisco Bay area. These planes are also used by the pilots working at Google in order to maintain their qualification and license. Google as a company shows interest in space applications as this was manifested in the purchase of Skybox, a manufacturer of micro satellites in June of this year for 500 million dollars.
As is known, the American Air Force base near the city of Roswell in New Mexico is also known as the site where they allegedly landed Aliens in 1947, and only decades later did it become clear that it was the crash of a spy plane that was secret in those days. The town makes a good living to this day from alien tourists.
And as for the high jump record, how could anyone break the record now? Can anyone climb higher? What will the senior record breaker from Google do in the future? Will Baumgartner take on the challenge of reclaiming the record?
And a final note, in some of the articles in the other media, the Eustace jump is referred to as a "space jump". Of course this is not true, the formal limit of space is 100 kilometers high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E93Rsf-XcCc
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One response
The truth is, I don't know how to accept that a senior manager is a brave athlete.
Is a senior manager or scientist required to fly a fighter plane and parachute from space?
Is this what makes Google a winner, and are people promoted there according to their sportsmanship.
I knew hi-tech companies that operated this way.
I'm afraid of roller coasters. Maybe I'm just jealous.