GERONIMO!

Google Exec Sets Parachute Jump Record

From 25 miles up.

What do you get when you drop a high-ranking Google exec from near the top of the stratosphere, sending him falling faster than the speed of sound? A new world altitude record. 57-year-old Alan Eustace, senior vice president of Google, flew via balloon on Friday more than 25 miles into the air, where he dangled inside a specially designed spacesuit with a life-support system inside and then dropped. It took him 15 minutes to fall back to Earth at speeds that peaked at 822 mph. “It was amazing,” he said. “It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space and you could see the layers of atmosphere, which I had never seen before.”