Original subtitles

- Swiss entrepreneur and amateur skydiver,

Marc Hauser, is gripped by an obsession.

He wants to fly faster than anyone before.

- I have this strong feeling that I'm able to fly

like a bird, like a jet, like a human jet.

I had this when I was really small

in kindergarten, like in a superman's tale.

- In 2012 Marc gained international recognition

when he established a horizontal speed tracking record

of 304 kilometres per hour, without a tail wind.

But with a tail wind, Marc

believes he could go even faster.

- I set this first world record and now I would

like to push the boundaries with the best wind

you can get up there and that's the jet stream.

- The jet stream is a continuous

ribbon of super-fast wind that circles

the northern and southern hemispheres of the world.

It's believed to contain 20 times

the energy needed for all of humanity.

- I really wonder why we don't use this

high-altitude wind power as an energy source.

It feels like a missed opportunity.

And I want to bring attention to this subject

by jumping into the jet stream as a skydiver.

I'm a real super chicken.

I'm so scared of heights.

So I do not believe in this concept of overcoming fear.

- Marc Hauser lives in Bern, Switzerland.

His day job is running a branding company as well

as travelling the world giving motivational speeches.

His passion is aviation and he is

an accomplished amateur glider pilot.

He learned to skydive to overcome his fear of having

to jump out of his glider in the event of an emergency.

- I knew that I will never exit this aeroplane

because this aeroplane was safe for me.

Okay, lets go.

Unfortunately I'm not Superman and I'm a real,

real two metre chicken and it was so hard

for me to become that skydiver and maybe

that's why the skydiving is still part of my life.

Usually skydivers they fall down.

They really are free falling and I was interested

in free flying and we did not have a clue how fast

it can get so I said to myself I will find out.

I carried these small GPS devices and it was

getting faster and faster and then I

decided okay, let's break the world record.

And there, there was no world record so it

was really easy to establish the first one.

- Marc jumped from an altitude of 4,200 metres,

free falling at a 45 degree angle to reach

a horizontal speed of 304 kilometres per hour.

That record remains valid today.

- Now we want to find out what happens when

I jump into the strongest tail wind we can find.

That's up there in the jet stream.

No one did it before but I think it's possible.

- First, Marc wants to find out how

the jet stream was reached in the past and whether

anybody else is already tapping into jet stream power.

He made a surprising discovery in Germany.

- When I talk to people about going up into

the jet stream they tell me, ah, it's not possible.

It's too high.

But today I'm here in Berlin to visit the weather museum

and they set a world record in altitude with kites.

They went up to more than 9,000 metres,

more than 30,000 feet and that was 100 years ago.

So maybe it's possible to go up there.

That's why I'm here.

- Surprisingly, harnessing high-altitude

wind energy for electricity production

is less science fiction than Marc thinks.

In Switzerland alone, he discovers three startup

companies that are leading innovators in this sector,

which could change the future of how we acquire energy.

- This is one of our prototypes.

It's fully functional

- How can you harness energy with this object?

- For starting we have these rotors, which start to spin.

So it can hover up like a drone.

And once it's high up where the wind is strong

we turn those rotors off and then the wind drives

the movement of this wing like a kite in the air.

And basically the energy is transferred mechanically

through that tether to the ground station

and the generator is attached to the drum here

to produce then this electrical power.

So the big difference to a wind turbine is that

we don't have the tower, we don't have a foundation.

We just have a wing and the generator on

the ground and those are connected by the tether.

And that saves about 95% of the material of

the wind turbine and that makes us mobile and flexible.

But the big picture is really, going offshore.

Here we can put our system on floating platforms.

Basically the whole ocean is now available for wind energy.

- So far Twingtec tested various

prototypes up to an altitude of 300 metres.

But they are aiming higher and expect to build

their first commercial 100 kilowatt generator

in a container sized unit, by 2020.

- What do you think, is it just a dream to harness the

energy power of the jet stream one day in the future?

- Well there is what people call the low level jet streams,

which are about 500 to 1,000 metres above ground.

That's definitely in reach in the next decade.

I'm sure.

To really go to 10 kilometres,

I think it's technically feasible.

If the need is there, we will go there and make it happen.

- Next, Marc goes to witness

the most unconventional wind energy

concept that is currently being tested.

This is at the Technical University of Rapperswil.

Inventor Michael Perberger explains his vision.

- Let me show you an animation about how

this system will really work in operation.

Our system is completely modular,

so you can transport it over land or sea.

The system can be assembled.

So on the one hand you have the wings.

On the other hand you have the circular structure,

which is mounted onto the generator and as a start

the generator function is inverted to a motor.

So that the cycling starts.

The lift is created.

Once it reached the operating altitude the motor function

will invert into the generator function when sufficient wind

speed is there and that converts the wind energy into

electricity and bring it down through the cable.

- It really looks like science fiction to me.

Beautiful but science fiction.

- Well, it is science fiction but it works

and it is really my vision to bring it down

to earth so that humankind will benefit from it.

- To reach jet stream altitudes

Michael wants to link these airborne

generators into a chain one on top of the other.

It sounds unbelievable but the test results

from a model in a wind tunnel are promising because

the underlying physics of the concept is simple.

- Well, each wing can be controlled

by it's singular servo motor.

So in the configuration that you will see

now we will create downwards lift on the back side.

So the system will have a negative angle of attack and in

the front side you will have a positive angle of attack.

And this will create the lift

and this will create the downlift.

So in total we will have a lift up and the rotation,

which will then be converted into the energy.

- So then the angles of the wings they change constantly?

- Correct.

Every millisecond every wing is receiving

its command where to be positioned and this

will depend on the location along that circle.

- Imagine, this is 2.5 metres per second

at a wingspan of one metre.

If you would go up to the jet stream with 45 metres

per second and a wingspan of six metres you would

get 60,000 times more power out of this system.

- It's not only about the wind energy of the jet stream.

We can not harness this yet.

But there are companies.

They are reaching higher and higher now and they can start

tomorrow with the right investors, they are ready to go.

- Marc is inspired by his

insights into these cutting edge technologies.

Perhaps they could solve the world's energy crisis.

However, his goal of flying through

the powerful jet stream seems even more daunting.

To reach the jet stream as a skydiver Marc decided

to try his luck with a hot air balloon and he found

the best qualified pilot in Switzerland,

European balloon Champion Stefan Zeberli.

- You can not go up there with a hobby pilot.

You need the real professionals.

Stefan Zeberli he is amazing and he is really into his task.

- Together they work on a vital

piece of high-tech aviation hardware,

the step required to safely exit the balloon's basket.

- The best case would be a door to open but in this case

we have now a special edition by Stephan Zeberli.

Patented Exit with two flat wood plates

and I can really step out pretty easily.

And I have a platform where I can jump in a standing

position like this I can hold myself here and I can fly.

- I think the whole project is a good idea

and it is not really a big problem to do it I think.

But there are many many things which can

not be 100% calculated from the beginning.

We only can do what the weather wants.

- Unpredictable weather is always

a huge risk when you travel in a balloon.

But there is also the lack

of oxygen in jet stream altitudes.

This can cause a life threatening

condition called hypoxia

leading to confusion and reduced levels of consciousness.

Death follows soon after.

Anyone in the balloon is required to breathe

pure oxygen and must undergo training to be

able to identify the onset of this deadly condition.

Marc and Stefan go to the Swiss military aeromedical

centre for hypoxia training, a simulation

of what happens to them, physiologically,

when they go up to the altitude of the jet stream.

- The oxygen in the chamber is slowly reduced

to simulate the balloon climbing to jet stream altitudes.

Oxygen is removed from Marc and Stefan

and the tests begin, drawing diagrams

and counting down numbers in steps of three.

- Confusion is an early sign

of the onset of hypoxia.

- They now simulate a climb to

the altitude of the jet stream.

- This is amusing now,

but if they climb to these altitudes without oxygen,

confusion will rapidly end in death.

- Stefan's hand starts to shiver,

so the trainer quickly rescues him.

- During the debrief,

Marc confesses to a worrying episode.

- It's crucial to learn

about the hypoxia risks in the jet stream.

But physical preparation is also vital for Marc's success.

He's carrying a long term knee injury

which could end his skydiving ambitions.

- I hurt my knee in the Swiss Army and I had six

surgeries so far and I'm waiting now for a replacement.

But I would like to make the jump first.

But now it doesn't look too good.

It's really swollen and I have to make

some exercise to be fit for the jump.

And it hurts.

- Marc is so worried that a poor landing could

destroy his knee, he travels to see his doctor for urgent

treatment and some reassurance that he will be okay.

- So the main problem of your knee joint is that

you have a displacement between the patella and the femur

so it tends to dislocate and because of that you developed

cartilage degeneration in the femur-patella joint.

- The doctor recommends

a steroid injection to help him.

- The knee is a never ending story.

Yeah, I hope I will not black out.

- That's it.

During the landing phase he has really to make sure

that he is coming into the right position

on his knee and not twisting something like this.

- To fight the fear of permanent knee damage

Marc decides to enrol in a parachute course in Spain,

to practise his landing techniques.

- So the challenge for him is to understand

how to fly the canopy correctly.

Understand the aerodynamics and the physics

involved in making the canopy land well.

And what Marc's been doing in the air he's

been practising this movement again and again.

So that when he does get into this slightly more high

stressful environment he is ready to do the right movement.

That's the physical side of it.

The mental side may take a little longer to overcome.

But you have to applying yourself to physical practise.

- I tried to combat my fear in different ways

but finally I never overcame the fear

and fear is still a part in every jump.

So I'm ready.

- Practise time and from now on, Marc will be

filmed by professional skydiving cameraman Tom Naef.

- Did you see what my problem is.

I like to fall on my knees.

I think they are designed for landings.

But it is always good to survive the first jump and as long

as you can walk away from a landing it was a good landing.

- You could do another couple of landings like this.

- That was survival training for my knee.

But it's good.

- Marc keeps practising .

- Yeah, nice one.

- After a series of successful landings,

Marc wants to move on to a shakedown jump from a balloon.

So the team meet in a quiet Swiss village,

on a tranquil morning.

- We are ready for the balloon jumps in Switzerland

and it's autumn and the weather is perfect, not too

much wind and we have a world champion in the basket.

So I hope everything will run smooth.

- The first time Skydivers are coming in the balloon

they have a little bit scare because only until

they are high enough to jump out of the balloon.

- I'm very excited about the first balloon jump.

It's important that Marc practises a stable exit

and gets into transitions into a tracking position to gain

as much speed as possible straight from the beginning.

- For the exit what's the plan?

- It will be a base exit on the belly and stabilise

first and then transition into tracking forward.

I will jump pretty much the same way

as I would like to jump from the jet stream.

- Today the balloon is flying

to 4,000 metres or about 13,000 feet.

This is almost halfway to the jet stream,

but a safe altitude without oxygen.

The primary purpose for this jump is to learn how to

parachute into still air and to iron out any unforeseen

problems, in preparation for the high altitude jump.

- Landing on the knee but we survived.

We survived. - Nice

- Yes

- When Marc attempts his high altitude jump,

everyone with him in the balloon basket,

will need to breathe oxygen.

Marc will take a personal oxygen supply in

the form of a small bottle, strapped to his body.

In the jet stream they will be exposed

to temperatures of minus 50 degrees.

So they want to test the bottle in

an extreme cold chamber facility.

Raphael, a skydiver friend of Marc, with engineering

know-how, is coming along to double check the reliability of

this oxygen system, a life dependent piece of equipment.

- Now we are here in the cold chamber and we will

make some material check with the oxygen system.

The first one, we test the oxygen bottle in minus

50 degrees and now the bottle is inside for 30 minutes.

So if it still works now it will work up there for sure.

- Immediately there's a problem.

- Doesn't work anymore.

It doesn't work.

It's all frozen up.

It doesn't work anymore, shit.

That's really bad news, it's not green anymore.

- It's not flowing actually.

Try.

- The problem is here because it's frozen.

This one too.

It's not flowing anymore.

- So I think the membrane got damaged in the cold,

which makes that the air is constantly

flows out instead of being on demand.

- So we have to protect this one against freezing.

It will be protected anyway when it is on my shoulder here.

But we need additional protection for this membrane.

- We kind of overkilled it in there with 35 minutes

at minus 60, which we're not going to have in the air.

We probably gonna be max 15 minutes at minus 50.

- But that was a rough test and you have to test

things in the roughest conditions you can find.

- Marc suits up for a more realistic scenario.

- Okay, let's try the oxygen system in real conditions.

The valve is here and I will breath here and it's

connected to the bottle and it should save my life.

- We are gonna try to do 15 minutes to see if we

still have the leakage problem when he is wearing

the full system and when he has the valve under his suit.

This is the test we are gonna do now and I'm

going in there to see if it still holds up

or if the valve membrane still freezes up.

We hope not.

- They both enter the chamber at

minus 60 degrees for a 15 minute soak.

- It feels like forever.

- Marc quickly discovers that when he

exhales inside his helmet, it immediately freezes

over and completely obscures his vision.

- So he did a full exhale into the helmet

without the snorkel and this is the result.

It's completely fogged up and this would be a worst case

scenario in the air because we can't see anything.

- The 15 minutes is up,

time to see if the oxygen flows.

- Valve is fine.

Do a breath.

Still working?

Breathe out!

Normal breathing.

Okay stop.

Perfect.

Let me check the temperature.

Zero degrees, it's fine.

Let's get out.

- Five minutes more.

- You do? Okay.

- I love it.

I love it when it's cold.

It's an extreme sport so I have

to stay inside this fucking chamber.

Yes, I will.

Until the bitter end.

- Marc's obsession with

the jet stream can be stressful.

Fortunately he can count on

the moral support of his daughters.

- My dad he always wanted to do and try new things.

He is an adventurer very much.

So I think it's perfect for him to do this jump.

He tries to explain every aspect of it to us.

So I'm not worried about it anymore, at least not that much.

He knows his boundaries.

He is not a crazy guy.

- It's wonderful to have a supportive family and when I can

bring them on and I can involve them in the adventure.

That's the best part.

So I have my ground control by

my family and that's important.

You need some anchors on the ground

and I have good heavy ones.

- The jet stream is strongest during

the winter months and Marc plans to execute his new world

record jump over the Swiss alps, during the coming winter.

But the precise timing is difficult to predict and so

he's asking the help of an expedition meteorologist.

- Well Marc, we have the blue marble.

Here we have the North pole.

We see the polar front jet stream.

Here is Alaska, Northern Canada, Yukon territory and now

the jet leaves North America here over Newfoundland.

- And here, that's pretty fast down here?

- Here it's pretty fast, yes

- Can we have a cut through this?

- Yes we could have a look at the cross section here.

Uh, the cross section shows 230 kilometres per hour.

Roughly 10 kilometres above sea level.

- That's pretty high.

Is there any chance the core could come down?

- Yes, in winter time with lower frontal

elevation we have the chance that the core

might be at seven or eight kilometres.

- And how wide is the jet stream?

- 400 millibars and 150.

It is close to 6,000 metres in

the vertical extension of the red area.

- That's exactly what we need.

- Yes, we need a strong jet core

but preferable on a lower elevation.

- And tell me how many days in advance

can you predict such a jet stream?

- With today's numerical models it is possible

to date two or five days ahead with great confidence.

- Could you make five days?

- I will try, I will try.

- Ralph seems to be a good

influence on the weather gods.

December is looking promising and Marc

wants to know what Stefan Zeberli,

the balloon pilot thinks about the weather forecast.

- Right now I'm really nervous

because it's not fake training.

It's real adventure now and even

my lips are getting dry now.

Yes, that's the real stuff.

- Suddenly, the race is on.

In two days Marc has to be ready to reach the jet stream

but his jumpsuit is still in need of a bit of attention.

- Yeah, that's a real homemade astronaut suit.

We are tailors now.

We need this thermal protection in the balloon basket

because in the cold chamber I was really freezing.

It's a bit late for work like this.

We had months and months to prepare

but now we are running low on time.

Yeah, it's a night shift but it's 01:30

so that's a good time to work anyway.

- It was a long night,

but one crowned with success.

- And here we have the spacesuit.

It was a night shift and that's

something you can try at home.

- All Marc's equipment

is now ready for final testing.

- Here we have the flight sight GPS.

I will mount the GPS here and they record

the speed and the altitude and all the way points.

That's the GPS, a most important device.

- But not everything is going according to plan.

- I just got a message from Stefan and it

looks bad for Tuesday because now we have clouds.

- The new forecast this morning became worse.

The top of the clouds are forecast

around 3,000 to 4,000 metres and that's too high.

With this situation that's really clear not to fly.

- Shit, shit.

You see, I do accept the weather.

I really do, I really do.

- Stefan's instincts are right.

The changing weather leads to

severe snowfall all over the Alps.

So Marc has no option except to wait

for the conditions to improve.

- I think we still have a chance for the late 2017

maybe late December but probably it will be 2018.

It's so difficult to find this one day where we can jump.

We need not too much wind on the ground.

We need a lot of wind up there in the jet stream.

We need no clouds.

We need the whole team in shape and very fit

and so all these small little elements

they must fit together and that's not easy.

Sometimes there are serious doubts about

the project, about everything falling in place.

Yes, serious doubts.

- After months of waiting,

Marc and the team are forced to relocate to Australia.

They are following the winter season because jet stream

winds blow faster in colder areas of the world.

In Melbourne Marc meets a new team member,

retired Flight Lieutenant Steve Gale.

He volunteered to help with logistics and

the complicated applications for flight permits.

- Steve Gale was very crucial in our project

and he still is, because you need one person

in place in Australia to make everything happen.

So without Steve there is no jump.

- Clearly Marc is a maniac but there is

this infectious thing that goes with somebody

that just really wants to break some bounds.

It draws me straight in.

How do you do?

Please to meet you finally.

Jesus, you are as big as, actually bigger than I expected.

All the stuff has arrived.

- Importing oxygen bottles from Emergency

Medical Systems, in Germany, was Steve's first job

to help Marc chase the jet stream over Australia.

- I'm so relieved that everything arrived in time.

But it was last minute delivery.

The oxygen equipment is one of the most essential

parts and that's what we need to get

the green light to get to altitude.

- Wow, this is the good stuff.

I don't think it's getting any better than this.

We got the equipment.

We are getting the approvals.

You're here.

It's happening.

It's the real deal.

I'm excited.

It's cool to be part of this.

- As a next step the Australian

Parachute Federation wants to scrutinise

Marc's equipment and test his skydiving skills.

The test is organised by chief instructor

Yaakov Bokay, a former Israeli Special Forces soldier.

He will decide whether Marc will qualify for

a permit to jump from altitudes up to 7,600 metres.

- There is a few aircraft parking over here.

Just avoid it.

Any questions about here?

- We are going to land in this area, right?

- All this belongs to you

- Tom flew in from Spain to continue

his support of Marc's mission.

- I have never been to Australia

and I'm looking forward to jump here.

It's gonna be great.

Especially because we will have an exclusive flight.

The plane just for us.

It's not happening every day.

- The team is also enjoying the support

of Martin Voll who flew in from Germany exclusively

to prepare the crucial oxygen system.

- Here in Goulburn, Martin assembles

the entire oxygen system for inspection.

- I really feel in absolute safe hands

So that's mine?

- The small one is for you as well.

That's for the circuit pack.

This is only reserve and here we have

a two litre tank as well.

That's enough for two persons for five hours.

- So we are fully equipped and we can go.

- We should be.

- Now we rehearse what we will do in the balloon

on altitude when he is switching from his system

where he breathes in the balloon to the carry-on

oxygen system that he's gonna have in free fall.

So we gonna take the belt off first.

And he switches in one second from one system to the other.

- What you did now is perfect.

- We will do it again up there.

- Awesome, good luck guys.

Okay, so what we like to do is a really nice opening

the canopy and landing in the target and safe.

You see the door?

- Mike Gardiner, a local Australian fixer,

has also joined Marc's team.

He is taking care of logistics.

- I can't see anything.

Wings are in the way.

Here they come.

Well, that's fantastic.

- My feeling is that everything will go straight

and the world record is very near.

- Well, he is accelerating now.

They both dropped their shoots out.

Both coming down now.

Shoot opened safely.

Both close together now.

Well, that was something.

- Welcome back.

- Very happy.

Nice job guys.

- Nice, I think we can tick that box.

Tick the box.

Done.

- I'm really happy with the safety.

Because number one is safety.

It was very professional.

- After a successful day, Marc receives official

clearance to jump from 25,000 feet, that's 7,620 metres,

the highest altitude allowed for skydiving in Australia.

Marc was hoping to get a clearance

for up to 10,000 metres, but that was impossible.

Later in the evening the team are meeting the new balloon

pilot, Steve Gryphon who has spotted a favourable weather

window for Marc's jet stream mission in two days.

They need to decide where to launch and where to land.

- Going from the burst straight to

the airfield is eight or 7.5 kilometres.

- Okay, but this would be off-track then?

So I would land in open field?

- The lower you get the more you have

to scan the area for poles.

- Looks like a good place to land.

There are only about four guys in Australia

with the experience to go to these altitudes.

So we are really happy that we have Steve on board.

- I've flown balloons up into the higher

levels for quite a few times.

I held the Australian altitude record

for balloons for quite a few years at 31,000 feet

- So that's clearly jet stream.

- And you can see that's gone to 30,000 feet and

the core of the jets becoming more evident on the.

- That's where I would like to be.

- Yes, like we are in the right place, right under the core.

115, that's come up a lot.

- We will be on the lower side of the jet stream?

Not really in the core?

- No, but we are right underneath the core

where we are looking at launching from.

But it's just not as fast.

What's your target speed?

What do you wanna?

- We are certainly looking for speeds

above 300 kilometres above ground.

But we will be surprised what the result will be at the end.

- Track hard buddy.

- Track hard.

Go steep, maintain heading.

- Don't fuck up with the heading.

Not good.

- Don't die, don't die

- The team gathers on a local playing field

and prepares for a launch after sunrise.

Martin, the oxygen specialist, begins by installing

the vital oxygen system in the balloon.

- When do these guys need to start oxygenating?

- When they should start?

Maybe 20 minutes before start.

- Okay.

- So we have 20 minutes left I think.

- This system is for Tom

and Steve the balloon pilot.

- The wind speeds have come down a bit.

It's over the top of Condobolin.

- A last minute check on the strength

of the jet stream reveals some mixed news.

- The forecast winds have dropped dramatically

overnight and they are saying that

the jet stream is about 20 knots slower.

So I'm just trying to figure out

how that's going to impact on us.

- Maybe we have jet stream, maybe we don't.

Jet stream is by definition winds above 60 knots.

100 kilometres per hour.

And now we are at this.

- Just on the edge.

So let's take the chances.

At least we can get a safe landing.

That's really the main condition that we need.

- Tom will also fly in the basket

to assist Marc and do his final safety checks.

He will stay with Steve the balloon pilot,

once Marc has jumped.

- It will definitely feel more comfortable with

that thing on my back because I'm used to.

It's not planned that I jump.

I definitely stay in the basket.

That is if everything goes alright.

Yes, Steve.

In the worst case you just hang

onto me and we jump together.

- I expect the temperature to be

around minus 35 to minus 40.

Fairly cool.

- It's essential that the team

pre-breathe pure oxygen prior to take off.

This will purge their bodies of nitrogen and prevent

them getting a potentially fatal episode of the Bends.

- We had just one day with clear weather.

We had no chance to do a dry run.

So we had to really go for the real

flight at the first time.

Of course that was not ideal but it was calculated risk.

- See you at 25,000 feet.

- At ground level the conditions are perfect

as the balloon begins its ascent into the jet stream.

- After take-off everything went fine.

We had a beautiful sunrise and 30 minutes

later at 7,000 metres the problems started.

- As they ascend higher the temperature

drops dramatically and the oxygen mouth regulators

for the pilot and Tom freeze in the open position.

- So now instead of the oxygen being supplied on

demand by each breath it pours out of the open regulators.

The hissing sound is the oxygen escaping.

They risk losing all of their oxygen

before they can complete the flight.

They press on and climb higher.

But suddenly, without warning,

the burners stop working and flame out.

- Frantically Steve tries to relight

the burners using a hand-held blow-torch.

But this fails and won't light either.

He tries the igniter on the burner itself but to no avail.

The extreme cold has caused the fuel to freeze and without

enough oxygen in the atmosphere the burners won't reignite.

- Suddenly we had this leaking

problem with the oxygen.

At the same time we had the problem of these burners

and the flame disappeared and the combination of these

two problems put a lot of stress in the situation.

- As the air in the balloon

canopy cools they begin a rapid descent.

- They are not going to be able

to get any higher without the burners working.

So now is Marc's only chance to attempt his world

record as the first man skydiving in the jet stream.

He is jumping into a wind speed of 140 kilometres per hour.

That's Hurricane force.

- I knew, I had to leave.

We were not prepared to have such kind of stress and I could

not concentrate on my first task, the speed, anymore.

But at the same time I was worried about my two friends

in the balloon because they were in great danger.

While I was in free fall I just had all the problems in

mind, which were really kicking in now for the balloon crew.

So first of all the hypoxia.

You can fall unconscious, you die in minutes.

Second was the burners.

If the balloon has no fire it will descend

in a fast rate and crash on the ground.

So the combination of that was pure horror.

Pure horror.

- As the balloon descends Steve

tries to ignite the burners one more time.

At last, luck is back on his side.

- I don't see any balloon in the sky.

After my landing I was searching for the balloon

and I had about 15 minutes on the ground.

I was desperate.

I didn't care about any record and then the relief came.

Alles safe, alles safe.

It was a phone call from Steve Gryphon

and he told me everything went fine.

- There we go.

Welcome back to earth.

- So the whole adventure didn't go 100% according

to plan and the question, was it worthwhile?

It's hard to tell.

Now, where everyone is safe in one piece

on the ground I would say, yes, of course.

But we were really lucky.

We finally survived.

- At the end Marc didn't break

his own speed record but he was the first man

to jump through the jet stream.

That in itself is extraordinary.

- Now we are coming back from Australia

and we are here in Switzerland again.

We came full circle and I'm so glad that my part

of the story is over and their part is just starting.

Their story continues and it's all

about bringing the energy down.

It looks like everything is ready now for take

off and it's amazing to see a handful

of engineers accomplishing such a great mission.

- Now we've shown it works and the next step obviously is

really to show that we can make a business out of it.

- On my side I hope the jet stream adventure will inspire

many more pioneers to step into this field of sustainable

energy and I'm so glad to be part of this mission.