Fourteen years ago today, a man stepped off a platform 39 kilometres above New Mexico and became the first person to break the sound barrier with nothing around him but a suit.

The voice in his ear

The man talking Felix Baumgartner through the jump was Joe Kittinger — who had set the previous altitude record himself in 1960, stepping out of a balloon at 31 kilometres in equipment that was, by any modern standard, alarming.

Kittinger was 84. He was the only person alive who knew what Baumgartner was about to experience, and the only voice permitted on the radio.

The part that nearly ended it

Baumgartner's visor heater failed on the ascent. Every breath fogged the glass, meaning he would jump effectively blind. He considered aborting. Kittinger talked him through it.

In freefall he entered a flat spin — the failure mode that kills. Spin fast enough and blood is forced to the extremities; the pilot blacks out, and an unconscious man cannot deploy a parachute. He stabilised it himself, without the emergency drogue.

1,357 km/h. Mach 1.25. Four minutes and nineteen seconds.

What it changed

Less than the spectacle suggested, and more than the cynics allowed. Eight million people watched live — at the time the largest simultaneous audience the platform had ever carried, for a man standing still on a small step, breathing.

The data informed later suit design. But honestly, it was mostly about the fact that a person did it and everyone could watch.

Space Jump Spectacle is card #264 in the Legacy Domination collection — a trading card game where every card is a real moment in history. [Explore the collection →]

The Card Behind This Story

Space Jump Spectacle

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