You’ve probably heard that Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team are back at their goal of breaking records with his planned 120,000′ skydive. You probably also know that the project was halted because of a lawsuit.

You may not know that the project almost stopped even before the lawsuit—because of Felix himself.

“I couldn’t do it. my head was letting me down.”

Before ascending into the stratosphere and free falling back to Earth in spectacular, record-breaking fashion, the Austrian BASE-jumper, 42, had to face his demons. At the high point of his life thus far, he hit an all-time low.

The Red Bulletin: All went quiet on Red Bull Stratos for nine months. What was going on behind the scenes?
Felix Baumgartner: Let’s go back to the time before the project was stopped because of a lawsuit. In December 2010, we carried out the last major tests with the space suit and it was clear to me that I had a problem – one I never thought I’d have – with my psyche. I had trouble putting on the space suit and it got worse and worse. I could barely stand a couple of minutes in it.

Could you describe the symptoms?
The idea was that the suit should feel like a second skin, but it’ll never be like that. Your movements and your perceptions are restricted. As soon as the visor closes there’s this nightmarish silence and loneliness – the suit signifies imprisonment. We hadn’t originally conceived of a test that confined me in the suit for five hours – that’s how long the entire mission should take – with the visor closed. After all my past exploits, all the extreme things I’ve done in my career, no one would have ever guessed that simply wearing a space suit would threaten the mission, me included. In the end, the symptoms developed into panic attacks.

You’re exaggerating …
Not at all. When it came to the crucial pressure test at -60°C, under real conditions with pressure and altitude simulated, and surrounded by cameras, air force personnel and scientists, I realised I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see a way around this problem. I’d easily mastered what seemed to be huge obstacles, like free fall in a pressure suit, but now my own head was letting me down. Instead of driving to Brooks [The Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering in San Antonio, Texas] to go testing, I drove to the airport and hightailed it out of America. I wept on the phone. It was the worst moment of my life. To that point I’d always known how to solve all my own problems. This time, in front of everyone, I’d found my limit.

Clearly, you’ve since pushed it higher.
We tried several things in training because from a medical standpoint a high basic fitness would also improve my stress resistance. But really, I mean… for 20 years I’ve done the most extreme BASE jumps, I’ve flown over the English Channel [in a wing suit], I’ve shown my stress resistance without hours of exercise bike sessions. The problem had to be solved another way.

Full interview online at Red Bulletin.

Swooper psyched for the Big Boy Pants Swoop Record-palooza at Mile-Hi Skydiving next weekend – I’m going to soak up the dry air, visit some old haunts and of course have a blast watching the big boys and girls go for new big records. That link has the full list of big boys who have been invited and will be there, along with profiles for most of them, so be sure to clicky click it.

But now for the important stuff (vote in the distance poll over there to the right, too >>>>):
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Taig Khris, the Ramp Warrior

This is, like, totally gnarly, bro. And, yeah, a little old. Whatever. It’s Friday. I love how he gulps a Red Bull just before his death-defying stunt. Radical in a tubular kind of way.

From asylum.com:

In-line skater Taig Khris, the most decorated athlete in extreme sports, jumped from 41 feet off the Eiffel Tower onto a ramp, setting a world record.

Khris (aka the “Ramp Warrior”) launched himself off the first floor of the Parisian landmark onto a ramp, before remaining on his feet for an impressive celebratory skate, then hitting the deck and plowing through a bundle of safety boxes.

The 34-year-old was attempting a new Guinness world record for the longest free fall from a structure onto a landing ramp.

It was also the world’s highest jump on roller skates. After the stunt, the French fruitloop said, “Two years nonstop, I didn’t sleep for nights and nights for that small moment up there and now, as you can see, I made it. So that’s cool. I’ve never had such a strong adrenaline rush.”

The previous Guinness record for the highest jump on roller skates was the 28-foot world record set by American Danny Way.

Mirage ad. Thank Ward.

• Mirage Systems has an open call for “a hot, experienced skydiving girl [who] would like to be on a National TV show filming in late July.” <Mirage>
• Judge rules Skydive City, [Freefall Express] must coexist until trial. <Tampa Bay Online>
• Nutty lady claims highest freefall jump, despite … well, every skydiver’s common knowledge. Bonus round – find all the ridiculously funny problems with this backstory article. <AOL news>
• Italian wins that other World Cup. Jump4Heroes was also there with their poppy canopies. <ProBASE World Cup>
• VA Beach firefighters rescue SEALs from trees. <WAVY>

Ground control to Major Felix

Last month, we told you about Red Bull Stratos, a crazy cool project that aims to send Felix Baumgartner up high. Really high. Super duper insane high.

The Red Bull Stratos project released a cool video this week about some of the science and technology behind the record attempt. Our good friend Kelly Farrington even makes a surprise appearance!

Enjoy (unless you’re on a Mac, in which case – sucks to be you. Or, you could try this.):

Born to Fly

Felix Baumgartner and Colonel Joseph Kittinger unveiled the Red Bull Stratos project today.

Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space, seeks to surpass limits that have existed for 50 years. Felix Baumgartner will undertake a stratospheric balloon flight to 120,000 feet and attempt a record-breaking freefall jump that is expected to reach – for the first time in history – supersonic speeds.

Velocity Sports Equipment, maker of the Infinity rig, created the rig and drogue. VSE owner Kelly Farrington says there are some pretty cool features of this rig. Hopefully we’ll get a bit more out of him, and some pictures, for you soon!

Lots of news covering this jump by Omar Al Hegelan and Nasser Al Neyadi, but this one is my favorite: Man Falls from Burj Dubai – Worlds Tallest Building. Like, whoops, I fell!

Enjoy the video—and particularly MSNBC’s spectacular journalistic reporting of the building’s height as 27,017′ (the smarties at MSNBC changed out the video on us and they’re correct now! – it’s 2,717′):

Some more links to fill up what remains of your Friday workday:
BBC
CBC
Daily Mail