A new record: three Russian parachutists landed at the North Pole after falling ten thousand meters

Mikhail Kornyenko, Denis Efremov and Alexander to Lynn set a new record when they jumped out of a plane from a height of more than 10,000 meters above the North Pole. Conventional parachute jumps usually take place from a height of 3,000-4,500 meters, but the Russians have more than doubled this height, reports Interesting Engineering.

The enterprising men ejected from the Ilyushin-76 as high as commercial airplanes fly, on the border between the troposphere and the stratosphere. The temperature here is roughly minus 50 degrees Celsius, which at the same time seems more like minus 70 when falling at 300 kilometers per hour.

The Russian trio therefore had to wear special heated clothing, but this is only the beginning. There was also the possibility that they would have to wear a spacesuit, but instead they decided to just wear an oxygen mask. They also inhaled pure oxygen just before the jump to minimize nitrogen levels in their blood to avoid problems such as decompression sickness during free fall.

However, the jump was not a goal, but rather a means: the three paratroopers were experimenting with a new communication system, with which they want to compete with the Americans’ iridium-based system.

The freefall lasted roughly 2.5 minutes, and their parachutes opened at about 1,000 meters. However, he still holds the record for the highest jump ever Alan Eustace who threw himself from a height of more than 41,000 meters in 2014, thus knocking Felix Baumgartner previous record.