Alan Eustace | |
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 Eustace in 2008 | |
| Born | Robert Alan Eustace[1] (1956-12-19)December 19, 1956 (age 68) |
| Alma mater | University of Central Florida |
| Occupation | Computer scientist |
| Known for | World record for the highest-altitude free-fall jump |
| Board member of | Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology |
Robert Alan Eustace (born December 19, 1956) is an American computer scientist who served as senior vice president of engineering and first senior vice president for knowledge atGoogle until retiring in 2015.[2] On October 24, 2014, he made afree-fallspace dive from thestratosphere, breakingFelix Baumgartner's world record. The jump was from 135,890 feet (41.42 km), an altitude record that stands as of 2025[update].[3][4] His freefall lasted 4 minutes 27 seconds, with a further 10 minutes under parachute.[5][6] He won theLaureus WorldAction Sportsperson of the Year in 2015.[7]
The son of aMartin Marietta engineer, Eustace grew up inPine Hills, Florida, then a working-class suburb ofOrlando, where small ranch houses had been built for employees of the Martin Marietta Corporation.[8] After graduating fromMaynard Evans High School in 1974, he received a debate scholarship fromValencia College and attended it for a year before transferring toFlorida Technological University—now known as theUniversity of Central Florida—to major in mechanical engineering.[8]
As a university student, Eustace worked part-time selling popcorn and ice cream in Fantasyland and working on the monorail atWalt Disney World.[8] After taking a class oncomputer science, he decided to switch majors and ended up completing three academic degrees in the field, including a doctorate in 1984.[8]
After graduation, Eustace worked briefly for Silicon Solutions, astartup inSilicon Valley,[8] before joiningDigital,Compaq and thenHP's Western Research Laboratory, where he worked 15 years on pocket computing, chip multi-processors, power and energy management, internet performance, and frequency and voltage scaling. In the mid-1990s, he worked with Amitabh Srivastava onATOM, a binary-code instrumentation system that forms the basis for a wide variety of program analysis and computer architecture analysis tools.[9]These tools had a profound influence on theEV5,EV6 andEV7 chip designs.
Eustace was appointed head of the laboratory in 1999, but left it three years later to joinGoogle, then a new startup.[8] At Google, he worked as Senior Vice President of Engineering until he retired from that section of Google on March 27, 2015.[citation needed]
As of 2025[update], Eustace is board chair of Pivotal,[10] sometimes giving interviews about their electric VTOL aircraft, thePivotal BlackFly.[11]
In the course of his professional career, Eustace co-authored nine publications and appeared as co-inventor in 10 patents.[citation needed]
In 2011, Eustace decided to pursue a stratosphere jump and met withTaber MacCallum, one of the founding members ofBiosphere 2, to begin preparations for the project.[3] Over the next three years, theParagon Space Development technical team designed and redesigned many of the components of his parachute and life-support system.[1][3] The Paragon team integrated systems for the Stratospheric Explorer mission code namedStratEx Space Dive.[12]
On October 24, 2014, Eustace made a jump from thestratosphere, breakingFelix Baumgartner's2012 world record.[13] The launch-point for his jump was an abandoned runway inRoswell, New Mexico, where he began hisgas balloon-powered ascent early that morning.[13] He reached a reported maximum altitude of 135,908 feet (41.425 km; 25.7402 mi), but the final number submitted to theWorld Air Sports Federation was 135,889.108 feet (41.419000 km; 25.7365735 mi).[3] The balloon used for the feat was manufactured by the Balloon Facility of theTata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad, India.[1] Eustace in his pressure suit, built byILC Dover,[14] hung tethered under the balloon, without the kind of capsule used by Felix Baumgartner. Eustace started his fall by using an explosive device to separate from thehelium balloon.[15]
His descent to Earth lasted 4 minutes and 27 seconds[16][contradictory] and stretched nearly 26 miles (42 km) with peak speeds exceeding 822 miles per hour (1,323 km/h),[13] setting new world records for the highest free-fall jump and total free-fall distance 123,414 feet (37.617 km; 23.3739 mi).[17] However, because Eustace's jump involved adrogue parachute, while Baumgartner's did not, their vertical speed and free-fall distance records remain in different categories.[18][19]
Unlike Baumgartner, Eustace, a twin-engine jet pilot, was not widely known as a daredevil prior to his jump.[3]
Eustace's world record jump was featured in two episodes ofSTEM in 30, a television show geared towards middle-school students by theNational Air and Space Museum.[20]
Media related toAlan Eustace at Wikimedia Commons| Records | ||
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| Preceded by | Highest space dive (41.419 km) October 24, 2014 – present | Current holder |
