It was finally named The Red Bull Stratos project, and its goal was defined as transcending “human limits that have existed for 50 years.”īaumgartner during the record-setting event.
REDBULL SPACE DROP FREE
The idea for a free fall from the stratosphere, a planned altitude of 120,000 feet, was conceived in 2005. His adventurous spirit and Red Bull’s out-of-the-box thinking meshed well, sparking a now decades-long collaboration. He perfected the art and in 1988 began performing skydiving exhibitions for Red Bull. Austrian-born Baumgartner started skydiving at 16. Not taking advantage of an opportunity to teach eight million people a few awesome things about science is a terrible waste, from an historian’s standpoint and a public relations standpoint.Ī little background first. I realize I sound like an irritated historian, but I also have a background (albeit a brief one) in publicity. Joe Kittinger’s 1960 jump was amazing, the heritage behind these types of tests is fascinating, but without any context the audience just saw a daredevil break a record for record-breaking’s sake.
It had an eight million person audience captivated, but did nothing to teach that audience about the context behind Baumgartner’s jump. Red Bull, who sponsored the jump, wasted an incredible opportunity. But I’d argue that the event wasn’t entirely a success from a publicity standpoint. It was exciting and death-defying, but at the end of the day it was a just an elaborate publicity stunt that will likely see Red Bull sales skyrocket this month. Īccording to YouTube, eight million people watched Felix Baumgartner’s high altitude jump on Sunday morning. She blogs about the history of spaceflight at Vintage Space, where this post originally appeared, and tweets at. Amy Shira Teitel is a freelance space writer whose work appears regularly on Discovery News Space and Motherboard among many others.
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