Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner breaks sound barrier
Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking leap from the edge of space, landing safely in the New Mexico desert after freefalling from more than 39 kilometres above the earth. The 43-year-old floated down to earth on a red and white parachute canopy, which he had opened after reaching speeds of 1,342km/h in freefall.
Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner made a record-breaking leap from the edge of space on Sunday, landing safely in the New Mexico desert after freefalling from more than 39 kilometres above the earth.
The 43-year-old floated down to earth on a red and white parachute canopy, which he had opened after reaching speeds of more than 1,120km/h in freefall.
Mission control erupted in cheers as Baumgartner made a near-perfect jump from a capsule hoisted aloft by a giant helium-filled balloon to an altitude of about 39km.
"Sometimes you have [go] up really high to [realise] how small you are," Baumgartner said shortly before he jumped, watched in live footage beamed around the world.
He had taken more than two hours to get up to the jump altitude. Baumgartner had already broken one record, before he even leapt: the previous highest altitude for a manned balloon flight was 34km, set in 1961.