Robert Alan Eustace (born 1956/1957) is an American computer scientist who served as Senior Vice President of Engineering at Google until retiring in 2015. On October 24, 2014, he made a free-fall jump from the stratosphere, breaking Felix Baumgartner’s world record. The jump was from 41.42 km and lasted 15 minutes, an altitude record that stands as of 2023.

In 2011, Eustace decided to pursue a stratosphere jump and met with Taber MacCallum, one of the founding members of Biosphere 2, to begin preparations for the project. Over the next three years, the Paragon Space Development technical team designed and redesigned many of the components of his parachute and life-support system. The Paragon team integrated systems for the Stratospheric Explorer mission code-named StratEx Space Dive.

On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from the stratosphere, breaking Felix Baumgartner’s 2012 world record. The launch-point for his jump was from an abandoned runway in Roswell, New Mexico, where he began his gas balloon-powered ascent early that morning. He reached a reported maximum altitude of 41.425 km, but the final number submitted to the World Air Sports Federation was 41.419000 km.

His descent to Earth lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds and stretched nearly 26 miles (42 km) with peak speeds exceeding 822 miles per hour (1,323 km/h), setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance 123,414 feet (37.617 km; 23.3739 mi). However, because Eustace’s jump involved a drogue parachute, while Baumgartner’s did not, their vertical speed and free-fall distance records remain in different categories.

According to en.wikipedia.org. Source of photos: internet