Space, part 3

Wow i can't believe i failed to mention some huge space news from this week:

Unless you've been living under a rock, which apparently a few people i've encountered today have been (along with my brain for forgetting to include this earlier) you'd know that Felix Baumgartner broke a few records this week with the Red Bull Stratos jump.

He surpassed the highest manned ballon flight record set in 1961 with his nearly three hour ascent to 128, 097 feet (the old record was 113,740 - pretty impressive for 51 years ago).

He eclipsed the highest freefall record by over three miles when he opened his chute at 8251 feet above sea level.  That's a freefall of 119,846 feet.

And his biggest record?  Being the first human in freefall to break the sound barrier by reaching 833.9 miles per hour, or Mach 1.24.

i can't imagine what that must have felt like to stand there looking at the curvature of the Earth.  My one experience sky-diving was scary enough and that was only 12,000 feet up.  i should note though, the scary part was sitting in a rinky-dink plane that arrived at the air field on the back of a truck.  i was more than ready to jump by the time we did.  Falling from the sky seemed preferable to sitting in the craft made of metal so thin it felt like i could put my fist through it.  And it got pretty freakin' cold up there too.  There was no hesitation on my part when it came time to step off into the clouds.  Doesn't seem like "Fearless" Felix waited too long either.

Speaking afterwards, the daredevil jumper said that when he was standing up there, he wasn't thinking about breaking records or the scientific data that his jump would result in.  He said it was just humbling.

That's really what it's all about isn't it?  Those moments in our lives when we truly see the big picture of things and realize we're just floating around on this big rock with whatever time is alloted to us.

Why waste it on petty things and negativity?