Man jumps from record-breaking height

This past Sunday morning, daredevil extraordinaire Felix Baumgartner completed a record-breaking plummet to Earth from 128,100 feet above the ground. To get an idea of how high that is, the camera view from Baumgartner’s helmet showed that the diver could see the Earth’s curvature from his vantage point. Carried in a small pod lifted by a helium balloon, Baumgartner rose to a distance of 24.26 miles. Through the mission, coined “Red Bull Stratos,” Baumgartner hoped to become the first man to break the sound barrier.

Baumgartner, an Austrian native, succeeded in stunning fashion, reaching speeds of over 830 mph while also breaking the record for highest manned balloon flight, highest jump and fastest jump in freefall. While the jump was an incredible stunt for Baumgartner and a major advertising boost for Red Bull, NASA plans to use data from the jump to better design space suits as well.

During the descent, which was broadcast over YouTube, Baumgartner had several tense moments as he spun rapidly throughout the early phases.

Although members of the control team were worried he might not be able to maintain control and deploy his parachute, the expert jumper (who has completed over 2,500 jumps during his career) managed to right himself and land safely. The video now has over 8 million hits.

Prior to the jump, Baumgartner and Red Bull had been carrying out intense preparations. Baumgartner himself had been prepping for the jump for the past five years, including two test jumps from the heights of 15 and 18 miles.

As “Fearless Felix” ascended into the sky, mission control maintained close watch over every aspect, from weather conditions to eye shield visibility.

Baumgartner is no novice to these high-stakes situations. Formerly, he was a member of the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping. He then began performing the stunts that have now made him famous. In 1999, he broke the record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he leapt off of the Petronas Tower in Malaysia.

Later that year, he broke the record for lowest BASE jump ever by jumping from 95 feet off of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

And, in 2003, he became the first person ever to skydive across the English Channel, using a carbon fiber wing to make the cross.