Okay, not completely frivolous, but definitely more exciting than yesterday. In 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped from a balloon, 19 miles above the earth. It set records for the highest parachute jump, the longest parachute drogue fall and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere.

Most of the records have been broken now – but only because Kittinger trained Felix Baumgartner, who duplicated the stunt this year, 2012, from even higher up. Kittinger was on the ground, talking him through it. In case you missed that event, here are the highlights.

One difference between Kittinger's jump and Baumgartner's was sponsorship. Kittinger did what he did as part of Project Excelsior (great name, huh?), a US Air Force project. It had a serious purpose – to improve air safety and test the limits of equipment. Kittinger received a trophy from President Eisenhower, and a medal from the military for his bravery.

Baumgartner, an Austrian, doesn't work for anybody's air force. He, er, works for a company that makes energy drinks. It's called 'Red Bull', and its slogan is that drinking it 'gives you wings'. How better to show that than to sponsor a parachute jump? Baumgartner and Kittinger, however, put this advertising business to good use. NASA are interested in the data. Entertaining and lucrative the whole stunt might have been, but astronauts may benefit. Also test pilots.

And it was a beautiful moment.

When Kittinger jumped, he said something about how Chuck Yeager was going to be, er, annoyed (although he used another word). Chuck Yeager, of course, was the first human to break the sound barrier. He did this in an airplane. Astoundingly, when he was 89 years old, he did it again, on the 65th anniversary of that first flight. In an F-15.

Okay, we're impressed. You're the coolest, Chuck.