Yes, the Space Jump Mattered



Now that Felix Baumgartner's supersonic freefall from the edge of space has entered the record books, it's time for the realists to step in and remind us that what we saw wasn't really all that big a deal.

You've probably heard their arguments already: it was a stunt, sponsored by a beverage brand that wants to associate itself with excessively energetic activity. It was only a few thousand feet higher than a jump U.S. Air Force officer Joseph Kittinger made, 52 years ago. Skydiving from 128,000 feet did not add a whole lot to our scientific knowledge.

All of which is essentially true. And all of which couldn't be further from the point if it tumbled out of a plane on the opposite side of the planet from the point.

You get the gist when you watch the heart-stopping video of Baumgartner jumping from his capsule, or get dizzy watching his helmet cam, or read the tweets that fret about what would happen if he didn't survive the jump.


SEE ALSO: Space Jump by Felix Baumgartner Dazzles the Social Web

It's been an interesting year of ups and downs for those who dream of spacefaring. On the one hand, we had the Curiosity Rover landing, an incredibly uplifting achievement celebrated by geeks everywhere. On the other, we saw the last Space Shuttle take a final journey to its resting place.

Are we getting closer to the stars, or further away? Is it only robots that get to slip the surly bonds of Earth now? Not that I have anything against that awesome tweeting truck, but surely we're still eager for exploration ourselves?

Anyone or anything that feeds that need should be welcomed. Even if it's a soft-drink brand. Great; maybe more brands will dare to dream this big. As SpaceX's first mission to the International Space Station demonstrated, we're fully in the era of private space exploration now. The more companies up there, the merrier.

No, this doesn't mean that a generation of thrill-seekers is going to be jumping out of capsules in the stratosphere or breaking the speed of sound. Inspiration works in more mysterious ways than that. Take the cellphone — which, according to its inventor, Martin Cooper of Motorola, drew on the communicators of Star Trek.

Or think about what happened when the Russians launched Sputnik. The U.S. didn't simply respond by throwing up copycat satellites. It boosted its entire science and technology spend — leading not just to the Apollo moon landings but, eventually, to the Internet.


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