Felix Baumgartner appeared on the Today Show this morning in an exclusive interview with Savannah Guthrie. Baumgartner, who jumped from a space capsule over 24 miles above the surface of the Earth at speeds of over 830 mph, announced his official retirement from “the daredevil business,” something that he notes, wasn’t all fun and games.

On October 14, Baumgartner ascended to the Earth’s stratosphere in a helium balloon and jumped 24 miles as part of the Red Bull Stratos project. In doing so, he set world records for highest altitude jump (128,100 ft), and for becoming the first person to break the sound barrier without vehicular power (833.9 mph).

On the Today Show, Baumgartner shared footage from his helmet cam during his descent. At one point, he seemed to spin uncontrollably before regaining his steadiness in the freefall. When Guthrie asked him if he was “hanging up his parachute,” Baumgartner replied coolly, “I did it all, I’ve had enough. It’s time to move on.” NatGeo plans to use the helmet cam footage in a documentary special in November.

Watch Felix Baumgartner on the Today Show:


I love that Baumgartner is retiring on the top of his game. Like Jim Brown or Barry Sanders, Baumgartner walked away after literally standing on top of the world, a humbling experience he notes in the interview. I applaud this move. After all, here’s a man who successfully completed the highest altitude jump by man and produced a sonic boom on the way down, so I think it’s safe to say that there’s little else for him to do.

Baumgartner originally hails from Salzburg, Austria. Some of his most notable feats (aside from jumping to Earth from space) include the highest parachute jump from a building when he jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, becoming the first person to skydive across the English Channeland setting the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever when he jumped 95 feet from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.