break the sound barrier. We knew we had to get the balloon as high as possible,” Utley said. The mission’s end results speak for themselves. As Utley commended the Red Bull Stratos program in ultimately meeting the requirements of the verification process, he summarized key aspects of that success as a project that had: • • • • • • •
Clearly defined objectives A multi-disciplined development and leadership program Deep industry experience among the team members A well-defined test plan “road map” and milestones A flight test program An integrated record validation process Adequate funding
TIMINGS Utley’s examination of the data indicates: Baumgartner reached Mach 1 when he was 34 seconds into his freefall. The speed of sound is dependent upon temperature, and in the prevailing conditions Baumgartner reached Mach 1 at an altitude of 33,446 meters / 109,731 feet MSL. Baumgartner continued to accelerate, reaching his maximum vertical speed of Mach 1.25 at an altitude of 27,833 meters / 91,316 feet MSL, when he was 50 seconds into his freefall. Baumgartner’s subsequent gradual deceleration took him back to the subsonic level at an altitude of 22,960.7 meters / 75,330.4 feet MSL, when he was 64 seconds into his freefall. (Thus he was supersonic for 30 seconds, a figure Utley found to be “quite remarkable.”) Baumgartner went into a flat spin just before he became subsonic and remained in the spin for about 13 seconds, finally stabilizing at 77 seconds into his freefall. (See Figure 1 for a chart prepared by Utley with timings and a terminal velocity profile.) The duration of Baumgartner’s freefall was four minutes, twenty seconds. “This was probably one of the more challenging moments of the flight,” Utley declared. Red Bull Stratos Scientific Summit
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