Space Dive Page #5

---

we've got to accomplish today,

obviously...

Art is back in charge.

And his team are back

working together.

My job is a hard job to fill.

I guess that's job

security in some ways.

I've got an incredible amount

of emotional and mental endurance.

We lost about six weeks

in the turmoil there.

We've got to make up for that time.

Let's go from here. You'll go

from that split right there. Hey-hey!

Three more times and we've got it.

We're working together,

the shop's working well.

We're getting things done.

It feels like we're back on track

as far

as it feels like we're back on track

as far as being a team.

Looks pretty good.

Progress! Progress. It's good.

The project is two years late

and 9 million over budget,

but at last it has a capsule

ready to be tested.

Now all it needs is a pilot.

Felix is back in training.

And that means he has to

confront his anxieties

about freefalling in the suit.

This time, he's jumping

with it pressurised.

This is supersmall. This really

sucks. Let's put the shoes...

I don't want to wear the helmet

before I have shoes on.

Mike, put the helmet away.

I think Felix probably feels

a little bit of anxiety,

you know, everything's,

coming together.

Now it becomes more

upon his performance and less upon

maybe the science team

so he's more

and more in the limelight

Hold on a second. Hands away.

I can't work with this ... .

Felix is going to 28,000 feet.

He's never jumped from higher

and he's facing the restriction

of a pressurised suit.

This is the most extreme

freefall he's ever done.

Joining him is Luke Aikens.

At these altitudes, everyone needs

to wear an oxygen mask.

As Felix completes final checks,

Luke,

in the foreground,

takes off his mask.

He leaves the plane

and hangs on waiting for Felix.

But Felix isn't ready.

Luke doesn't know it,

but the lack of oxygen

means his brain is shutting down.

He's going hypoxic

and it means he's losing his grip.

Suddenly he falls..

Luke is effectively unconscious

and falling to earth at 160mph.

Felix is confused

and jumps out after him.

The team has no idea of the drama

unfolding above them.

Luke needs to come round. His

parachute won't open automatically.

Can you see them? Yup.

Just seconds from the ground,

Luke regains consciousness

and pulls his chute.

How did it go?

I don't remember jumping out.

You don't remember jumping out?

I remember giving Felix

thumbs up I the door,

I climbed out and then

I was in freefall looking for Felix.

Did we leave together?

No, you were... I just went, right?

That's what I thought I did.

Luke said he didn't even

remember jumping out.

I was out of it...

He took his face mask off.

You usually don't

jump from altitudes like this.

Everyone talks about the hypoxia

and the effects of it

and how it comes on and you think

everything's fine and it's not.

I'm losing all my flexibility.

In an emergency situation,

it becomes scary.

Felix is shaken by Luke's near miss.

The suit is blown up

and I can't move.

He's focusing his anger on the suit,

convinced he can't jump

safely in it.

It's not moving in this direction,

so it's like I can't see it.

So I'm not jumping in it anymore.

This thing is crap.

Felix forces the team to abandon

testing altogether.

I'm very disappointed.

What we thought was working OK

and was going to be fine

is suddenly not OK anymore.

We're going to have to go back

and think about what we're doing.

Felix walks out on the mission

and catches the first flight home.

It sometimes feels like,

I can't do it. It's just too much.

There's a lot of stuff that has

never been done before

and I don't have a lot of time to

prepare myself for stuff like this.

Like in a suit, I mean pilots have

a couple of thousand hours

in that suit - I just have 20.

Just having the suit on my body,

feeling it,

the smell and everything makes me

kind of anxious,

I'm sitting there like,

I don't feel good today.

I'm not sure, I don't like the suit

today. I'm telling myself, hey,

c'mon, tough it out, you have to go

through this

because it's getting closer.

This is the year that we

have to deliver

and know you're having a problem

wearing the suit?

But I couldn't stand it so I told

Mike, I opened my visor again,

get me out of the suit.

I just can't do it today.

Red Bull offers Felix

professional help.

Imagine that you are now in the

room where the tests are.

You see the oxygen mask.

You see the mask, you smell it,

you know you can cope with it.

We're kind of second-guessing

what's going on in Felix's head,

and whether it's the fear

of the jump of the fear of the suit

or just the fear of possibly

failing at something.

But there's something going

on in his head that he has

to get a hold of.

This shouldn't be something that you

have to talk somebody into doing.

You're going to get someone hurt

if you do.

It has been six months

since Felix's anxiety in the suit

ended his training.

The engineers are now in the final

stage of their work.

They just need to test the capsule

under pressurised conditions.

Check location of all four

parachute handles.

But Felix has refused

to return from Austria.

OK, the outside is 20,600ft...

The team have been forced to

bring in a substitute for the test.

The test pilot that we have,

Rob Rowe, is a real pro

and, ah, we have a lot of advantages

of having him doing it,

because of his professionalism.

Rob is a charm to work with,

he never complains about anything,

he's very easy going.

He considers himself

more of a tool for the project.

News of the team's progress

has reached Felix.

I saw the video of when Rob

was in the chamber in Brooks,

and I got so jealous

just watching him.

Because he is in my suit.

This is my suit.

This is my spacecraft.

Everything was developed for me.

And just seeing him in the suit,

sitting in my capsule,

playing with all the buttons

and stuff made me start thinking,

like, hey, I mean,

I lost a whole programme.

'I have to find a solution.'

Felix is running out of time.

He steps up his personal training.

I'm working on my fitness

and my mental skills.

I'm doing a lot of scuba diving,

because it's very similar

to wearing that suit.

If I can handle this,

I can also handle the suit.

But Felix's team is losing

confidence in him.

He had the opportunity

to train properly,

he just never took advantage of it.

He needs to be in the suit.

He needs to be part of the team.

You need to be dedicated to do this.

And if you're not dedicated,

you've got no business being here.

This is something I want so bad

and I'm willing to go that extra

mile to reach that goal.

And if they don't believe

I can do it,

that even gives me

a lot more motivation.

A year has passed

since Felix halted his training.

Everything is now ready

for the final jump.

Except him.

He finally returns to face

the team - and the suit.

The capsule already demonstrated

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes