Over the weekend Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space and parachuted to the ground, breaking records and the sound barrier along the way. A really cool video can be found here.
What I think is the most interesting point here, besides the fact that a man broke the speed of sound with his face, is that we are seeing a space boom like that of the 1960’s. Though were not quite there yet, I personally have been glued to every new development from the Mars Curiosity rover.
The balloon base jump is another layer on the cake. For whatever reason, our intrest in space has been rekindled. While it is purely sentimental I think the young generation of this country could use the catharsis of seeing a man walk on Mars.
For most of my life all I have seen is the slow dismantling of our space program and the removal of our iconic space shuttles from active duty. It’s nice to have boundaries to explore. Felix reminds us that there might be one more giant leap for mankind left.
