Fact Check: Viral video shows a skydiver doing a supersonic freefall, not jump from space

Fact Check:

The claim is Misleading. When we searched the keyframes extracted from the video using Google reverse image search, we found several articles published in 2012.

We found an article published on Space News, Baumgartner, 43, set a new record for the world’s highest skydive when he jumped from an altitude of 39,044 meters and broke the sound barrier during his long descent back to Earth. The daring supersonic jump caught the eye of professional astronauts, even if Baumgartner did not leap from the official edge of space 100 kilometers up. Baumgartner’s jump called the Red Bull Stratos mission, was sponsored by the energy drink of the same name and webcast live, with camera views from the ground and from the skydiver’s capsule.

According to fai.org, on October 14, 2012, more than eight million people tuned online to watch the Austrian skydiver, Felix Baumgartner jump from the edge of space. The jump itself was just 09m 03s long, but the achievements of the Stratos team have endured with two of the FAI records set still unbroken. At 38,969.4m altitude above Roswell, New Mexico, Baumgartner stepped out of the pressurized capsule which was suspended from a gas balloon, wearing a specially-designed suit. He made a freefall of 36.529m, some of it in a “violent spin” until he pulled his parachute, stabilized, and floated safely to earth.

Among the achievements made by this jump were three FAI world records:

• Maximum Vertical Speed (without drogue): 1,357.6 km/h
• Highest Exit (jump) Altitude: 38,969,4 metres
• Vertical Distance of Freefall (without drogue): 36,402.6 metres

In this jump, Baumgartner broke his own maximum vertical speed record which he had set in March 2012. His October 14 record still stands today, as does his fall distance record, but the exit altitude record was superseded by Alan Eustace in 2014, who rose up to the stratosphere suspended under a gas balloon, then jumped from 4,422m with a drogue parachute. Baumgartner also became the first person to break the speed of sound without the protection or propulsion of a vehicle. He was ‘supersonic’ for 30 seconds, and reached Mach 1.25. Interestingly, it was on October 14, 1947, 65 years to the day, that Chuck Yeager broke the speed of sound at Mach 1.05 in X-1 Glamorous Glennis.

We also found a longer version of the video published on the YouTube channel of Red Bull with the title “Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall from 128k' - Mission Highlights”, on October 15, 2012. The description of the video states: “After flying to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed a record-breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane. Felix reached a maximum of speed of 1,357.6 km/h or 843.6 mph(Mach 1.25) through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4:20 minute long freefall. The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the one for the longest freefall to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.

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Hence, the video showing a person jumping off does not show an astronaut jumping from space, it shows a skydiver daring to perform a supersonic freefall from the edge of space. The claim is Misleading.