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| Felix Baumgartner while jumping out from space capsule [PHOTO: Red Bull Stratos] |
Roswell, New Mexico: After flying to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet)
in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed Sunday morning a record
breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck
Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered
airplane. The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world
records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the one for
the longest freefall to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.
Baumgartner landed safely with his parachute in the desert
of New Mexico after jumping out of his space capsule at 39,045 meters and
plunging back towards earth, hitting a maximum of speed of 1,342.8 km/h through
the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later
during his 4:20 minute long freefall. Countless millions of people around the
world watched his ascent and jump live on television broadcasts and live stream
on the Internet. At one point during his freefall Baumgartner appeared to spin
rapidly, but he quickly re-gained control and moments later opened his
parachute as members of the ground crew cheered and viewers around the world
heaved a sigh of relief.
"It was an incredible up and down today, just like it's
been with the whole project," a relieved Baumgartner said. "First we
got off with a beautiful launch and then we had a bit of drama with a power
supply issue to my visor. The exit was perfect but then I started spinning
slowly. I thought I'd just spin a few times and that would be that, but then I
started to speed up. It was really brutal at times. I thought for a few seconds
that I'd lose consciousness. I didn't feel a sonic boom because I was so busy
just trying to stabilize myself. We'll have to wait and see if we really broke
the sound barrier. It was really a lot harder than I thought it was going to
be."
Baumgartner and his team spent five years training and
preparing for the mission that is designed to improve our scientific
understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions at the edge of
space.
Baumgartner had endured several weather-related delays
before finally lifting off under bright blue skies and calm winds on Sunday
morning. The Red Bull Stratos crew watching from Mission Control broke out into
spontaneous applause when the balloon lifted off.