Austrian daredevil Felix "Fearless" Baumgartner became the first man to break the sound barrier in a record-shattering, death-defying freefall jump from the edge of space.
The 43-year-old leapt from a capsule more than 24 miles above the New Mexican desert on Sunday. In doing so, he set the record for the highest human freefall and became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound without the assistance of a craft. His peak velocity measured an astonishing 833.9 mph, or Mach 1.24.
Baumgartner was in freefall for for four minutes and 20 seconds before opening his red and white parachute and floating down to the desert in the US state of New Mexico, said Red Bull Stratos mission record keeper Brian Utley.
"When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about of breaking records anymore. ... The only thing you want is to come back alive," Felix Baumgartner said during a post-jump press conference.
Baumgartner made history in a 28-pound high-tech suit built by Worcester-based David Clark Co., a leader in air and space protective gear since 1941. A design four years in the making, it protected him from low air pressure and temperatures of 70 degrees below freezing, conditions which could have caused his blood to boil.
Baumgartner said before - and during - the jump, his helmet's visor fogged up, adding that at one point, "It looked like a mission abort." But he pressed through, and despite spinning wildly for a matter of seconds during the dive, he regained control.
"I know the whole world is watching now and I wish the world could see what I see," Baumgartner said he told officials at the Roswell, N.M., mission control center before taking the record-setting leap. "You have to go up really high to realize how small you are."
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