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Google exec breaks skydive record with dive from near-space

"What if you could design a system that would allow humans to explore the stratosphere as easily and safely as they do the ocean," said the Google exec.

By Brooks Hays
Eustace, ascending to the top of the stratosphere. (J. Martin Harris Photography/Paragon Space Development Corporation)
Eustace, ascending to the top of the stratosphere. (J. Martin Harris Photography/Paragon Space Development Corporation)

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Alan Eustace, a 57-year-old senior vice president at Google, spent 15 minutes of his Friday free-falling from the top of the stratosphere. His near-space jump set the world record for highest skydive.

Eustace jumped from an altitude of more than 25 miles. After hurtling toward Earth for nearly a quarter of an hour at a speed of 1,600 feet per minute, the Google exec triggered his parachute and landed safely back on an abandoned airport runway in California, not far from Silicon Valley, where Eustace makes his living.

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His feat, which was kept under wraps until today, beat out the previous skydive record set two years ago by Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner.

"It was amazing," Eustace told The New York Times of the experience. "It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before."

Though Eustace has earned a reputation for thrill-seeking among the world of West Coast billionaires and tech-junkies, his efforts were just as much an exercise in teamwork and scientific exploration as bravado. He secured the help of engineers and aerospace experts at Paragon to help him design and build the pressurized suit that protected him during his jump, as well as the helium balloon that carried him to the edge of space, a program dubbed StratEx, short for Stratospheric Explorer.

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"What if you could design a system that would allow humans to explore the stratosphere as easily and safely as they do the ocean," Eustace said in a statement. "With the help of the world-class StratEx team, I hope we've encouraged others to explore this part of the world about which we still know so little."

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