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World's Highest Skydive! Daredevil Makes Record-Breaking Supersonic Jump
By Mike Wall |…
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This story was updated at 4:51 p.m. EDT.
An Austrian daredevil plummeted into the record books today (Oct. 14), breaking the mark for highest-ever skydive after leaping from a balloon more than 24 miles above Earth's surface. Add one more feat: Going supersonic.
Felix Baumgartner stepped into the void nearly 128,000 feet (39,000 meters) above southeastern New Mexico Sunday at just after 12 p.m. MT (2 p.m. ET, 1800 GMT), then landed safely on the desert floor about 20 minutes later. His harrowing plunge shattered the skydiving altitude record, which had stood for more than 50 years, and it notched a few other firsts as well.
During his freefall, for example, Baumgartner was expected to be the first skydiver ever to break the sound barrier, which is about 690 mph (1,110 kph) at such lofty heights. And this happened on a special day — today is the 65th anniversary of the first supersonic airplane flight, which was piloted by American Chuck Yeager in 1947 aboard the Bell X-1 rocket plane.
"I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see," Baumgartner said just before the leap. "And sometimes you have to go up really high to see how small you really are."
Preliminary results of the jump showed Baumgartner spent about 4 minutes and 20 seconds in freefall (a record without a drogue parachute). His maximum speed was 833 mph (1,342.8 kph), said Brian Utley, an air sports official watching over event.
The jump's top speed: Mach 1.4 - faster than the speed of sound.
How many of you watched this?
It was fantastic...Discovery Channel had it on live and both the audio and video were fantastic... You felt like you were there with the guy...Better than NASA ever did...
While it was a stunt- there was also a lot of science involved... Austrian skydiver- Financed by the Indonesian owner/maker of Red Bull- Landing in the New Mexico desert...
If you didn't see it and get a chance to see the replays (which I'm sure Discovery Channel will have 100's of) - watch it..