WASHINGTON – Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner was awarded U.S. Space Force jump wings today, making him the very first recipient of the new service’s most coveted badge. The U.S. flew him in from Vienna to honor his heroic 2012 jump from the stratosphere, wherein he became the first man to break the sound barrier without vehicular power, reaching Mach 1.25 from 24 miles up.
“There may have been a bit of a language barrier,” said Chief of Space Operations, Gen. John Raymond, who presided over the ceremony, “But I’m pretty sure that when I pinned his wings, he called me a ‘dirty Leg.’”
