The technical challenges are as follows:

1. Making the ascent.

2. Surviving the environmental conditions of the ascent.

3. Converting the ascent to a fall.

4. Surviving the environmental conditions of the fall.

5. Surviving subsequent contact with the ground.

6. Getting home from wherever you landed.

7. (optional) Taking good pictures and video.

Three of those seven elements are always potentially lethal, and three more could be, if not planned correctly. It's not quite the same league as jumping off a roof into a swimming pool.

> 1. Making the ascent.

Sitting in a globe and wait to get up there

> 2. Surviving the environmental conditions of the ascent.

That's what the suit is for, no ability needed from the rider

> 3. Converting the ascent to a fall.

Pressing a button

> 4. Surviving the environmental conditions of the fall.

Again, the suit

> 5. Surviving subsequent contact with the ground.

This time the parachute

> 6. Getting home from wherever you landed.

The team working with the guy

> 7. (optional) Taking good pictures and video.

Ok, so his prowess is in being able to not faint in the process and being able to hold a camera.

Compare to say, free diving, were the person needs the ability to hold his breath for a period of time, or mountain climbing where they need the physical strength to walk up a mountain several kilometers with 20kg on the back.

You have no idea about the technical challenges that come with a jump like this. Stop reducing it to "the parachute", "the team", "the suit". These are all important parts of the jump but you can't just do this stuff without the experience to control yourself.

The way you are talking, you probably think it's trivial to jump out of an airplane with a parachute. There is a lot more to skydiving than just jumping and deploying a parachute. There is a reason you need to do a lot of jumps before you can jump at high altitude, and this record-breaking jump is even harder than that.

There is a reason people who are knowledgable about skydiving are impressed by this jump (see the comments higher up on the page), and that's because they appreciate the challenges. You are unimpressed because you know very little about these challenges. This is okay if you keep your ignorance to yourself, but embarrassing otherwise.

GP was not only trivializing, but also begging the question.

All you need to solve the technical problem is the solution to that problem. Easy.

Be fair, the nerve to do the thing at all is significant. Not like a monkey in the Mercury capsule, who after all had no say in the deal, this guy could have 'bailed out' of the project at any time. He didn't. That means something.

The falling part is easy. The not dying part is harder. The creating a suit to fall in is tricky too.

And as for falling being easy: when's the last time you jumped off a high dive board? Try it sometime.

Dunning Kruger effect.

Stick your hand out a car window and not the force at say 70 mph. Now imagine it twice as fast. If your hand is not symmetrical you spin. I can do turns in the air with just my hands. A misplaced arm or leg is going to cause even more force and faster rate of turn.

Didn't he blow a charge to disconnect? Way easier to press a button than to jump out of a doorway

Well, the suit handles all the hard work of not dying. It could have been anyone in that suit, it just happened to be that guy.

I can stand in ovation at the engineering work in all this, but I don't see reason to applaud the rider.

Agreed. Honestly, I'm really disappointed in the backlash that skeptical commenters are seeing on this article.