In Russia, active preparations are underway for the country's first ever jump from the lower layer of the stratosphere. It will be performed by Nicholas Oxman, who will go into free fall from a height of 13 thousand meters.

Here is how the astronaut himself describes the idea: «Our space start-up is engaged in the production and launch of stratosats to heights of up to 40 000 meters which can be boldly called as 'near space'. At the beginning of 2022, as a co-founder of the company, the idea came up to launch a manned payload, not a drone, into the stratosphere! Finding someone willing to take on such a position is not easy, so I made myself the test pilot. The task was non-trivial - to prepare me and equipment from scratch in a record short time (1.5 years), and then launch it to a height of 13000 meters (the lower edge of the stratosphere) and safely return using a 'wing' type parachute, overcoming most of the distance to the earth in free fall».

The parachute will open only at an altitude of about 3 km, until then the astronaut will be descending at a vertical speed of about 500 km/h. Now Nicholas Oxman is actively training in a wind tunnel.

«The most difficult moment will be at the very beginning, because at the moment of separation you have no air to rely on, and most likely, you will experience weightlessness for the first 5-10 seconds. At this moment you cannot control your body. Most likely, you will be spinning. And one of the important stages of preparation for this jump is just a flight in a wind tunnel, because if you don't have the skill of free fall, you might fall into a so-called disorderly fall, when you don't understand what's going on, you're spinning very hard», — said Nicholas Oxman.