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NOTT’S LANDING
I
f you had accidentally found yourself awake and wandering about the isolated desert surrounding Roswell, New Mexico in the early
morning of October 24, and you happened to hear a sonic boom and looked up to the heavens and saw something possibly man-
shaped piercing the atmosphere faster than the speed of sound, rest assured, it wasn’t Iron Man or distant relatives coming to claim the
mythological Roswell Alien.
Rather, it was Alan Eustace skydiving back to earth after ascending to the very edge of space at nearly 136,000 feet. Eustace quietly broke
the world record that was publicly set a couple years ago by dashing Australian daredevil Felix Baumgartner, whose dive from a mere 128,100
feet was sponsored by energy-drink maker Red Bull.
Eustace, a man who looks like what you’d expect a senior vice president of Knowledge at Google, Inc. to look like, mostly sponsored his own
jump. The man who launched him into the heavens, erstwhile Brit, and current Hope Ranch resident Julian Nott, could sit in for Q in a Bond
movie from campier times. He has an Oxford University master’s degree in physical chemistry and an unmistakably English sense of humor.
He also wants to send you to space.
He has a secret weapon.
It’s a balloon.
winter
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BY
JOE DONNELLY