Right before Felix's chute opened, the narrator mentioned Joe K's free fall record, Felix was 20+ seconds away from the record when he opened his chute. I'm guessing that the chute opened automatically at a certain altitude and that the attempt to break the speed record meant forgoing the free fall duration record.
He was spinning pretty bad just before the chute opened. They had said that the shoot would automatically deploy during a spin if he went over a certain amount of G-force. I don't know if that's what happened or not, but that would be my guess.
The supersonic skydive was amazing.
I really enjoyed it. Hell,
my stomach sank when he put he feet out and stood up, I can't imagine actually being up there.
And it was kind of funny how they kept screwing up the wind direction >.<
For all the crap companies get for marketing and advertising n'stuff, I'm happy to see Red Bull spending that kind of money on stuff that actually helps out.
Oh, and its a good demo on the power of the private sector too.