Kinda makes me wonder how will they top this record? Depart from a low earth orbital platform? Obviously at some point there will be the issue of gravity itself or lack of, of course gravity will eventually pull anything in that is close enough.
What would be the true test would be to perform a manned re-entry from space, from something like the orbiting space station.
From orbital altitude, there are orders of magnitude more kinetic energy to dispose of. Vehicles re-entering from orbit glow with bright incandescence for the hi-G part of their re-entry.
They must scrub off not Mach 1.24, but about Mach 20.
It is true that there is a distinction between being at orbital altitude and being in orbit. In the former case, you may start out with zero velocity, as in the apogee of a straight-up rocket shot; in the latter, you will begin with at least about 7 KM/S. But in either case you need to get rid of the potential energy of your altitude, which is a significant fraction of the total energy of an orbiting body.
However.....someone just might come up with a suit that could do it, in combination with a parasail made of ceramic cloth or similar material.