A Record Breaking Interview

“Records are meant to broken.” – Felix Baumgartner

In October we had the opportunity to interview Felix Baumgartner for a new exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. Felix is the first person to break the sound barrier in freefall, jumping from the Red Bull Stratos capsule at an altitude of 128,851 feet.

The Science Centre is the perfect location to display these artefacts because of the amount of incredible science behind the jump. And it’s not just the science that went into the development of the suit and the capsule that is astonishing, the data that was collected on the mission itself was invaluable. 

My first impression? Felix is not your typical daredevil. He’s humble, low-key, respectful and polite. His heroes are the people in the Stratos team, the people that developed the technology and researched the science to keep him safe and make this mission possible. But, at 46, he’s still not entirely ready to keep his feet on the ground – his next adventure is flying helicopters for alpine rescue teams.

Felix also reflected on the innovations of the past as the pillars of our future. He commented that back when the Wright Brothers were attempting their first flight people thought they were crazy.  But much like Felix, the Wright Brothers were willing to put their lives on the line because they saw the potential benefits their success would have for mankind.

So it’s likely that one day, when space travel is as common as airline travel, we will all benefit from the technology developed by the Red Bull Stratos team.