A Supersonic freefall video shared as an astronaut jumping from his Spacecraft - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 25, 2021
A video is being shared on social media claiming it as the live visuals of an Australian astronaut jumping from space. This post claims that he jumped from a height of about 40 lakh feet and reached the Earth in 4 minutes covering 1,236 kilometres distance. Let’s verify the claims made in the post.
Claim: Video of an Australian astronaut jumping onto earth from his spacecraft covering 1,236 km in 4 minutes from a height of about 40 lakh feet.
Fact: The person jumping from space is an Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, not an Australian astronaut. Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking supersonic free fall from space on 14 October 2012, as part of the Red Bull Stratos mission. He Jumped from 1,28,097 feet or about 24 miles above the Earth and reached the Earth in less than 10 minutes. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots shared in the video, we found similar visuals in a video published on the official YouTube channel of ‘Sky News’. ‘Sky News’ channel published this video on 15 October 2012 with the title “Felix Baumgartner skydives from the space”. In the description of the video, it is mentioned that the skydiver Felix Baumgartner made history by leaping from 1,28,097 feet above the Earth. It is mentioned that Felix Baumgartner after jumping out of a giant helium balloon, had a free-fall for four minutes and 19 seconds before opening his parachute.
When we searched for more information using these keywords, we found the same video in an article published by the BBC News on 14 October 2012. In the article, it is mentioned that the Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking leap on 14 October 2012 as part of the Red Bull Stratos Mission. It is reported that Baumgartner jumped from 1,28,097 feet (39,000 meters) or about 24 miles from the Earth by creating the new World’s highest skydive record. It is reported that Baumgartner has become the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching the maximum velocity of 833.9 mph or 1,342 kmph. Reporting the same, ‘Space.com’ website published an article on Felix Baumgartner’s record-breaking Supersonic jump.
The same visuals found in the videos published on the Red Bull Stratos website. Red Bull Stratos is a high altitude skydiving project involving Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner. Red Bull Stratos posted the same video on their official YouTube channel. Felix Baumgartner’s Supersonic jump was also mentioned on the ‘Guinness World Records’ website. From all these pieces of evidence, it is concluded that the person jumping from space is Austrian Skydiver Felix Baumgartner, not the astronaut from Australia.
To sum it up, a Supersonic free fall video of Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner is shared as the visuals of Australian astronaut jumping from the space.