Watch as daredevil Felix Baumgartner plummets from the edge of space and lands safely, breaking the fastest freefall record - and the sound barrier.
DAREDEVIL Felix Baumgartner reached a top speed of 1342km/h, or 1.24 times the speed of sound, in a record-breaking freefall from the edge of space.
The speed, revealed at a press conference after the unprecedented leap from 39km up, was significantly higher than that given earlier by a spokeswoman, who had put his maximum speed as 1136km/h.
No one has ever reached that speed wearing only a high-tech suit.
The 43-year-old floated down to Earth on a red and white parachute canopy.
Felix Baumgartner celebrates with Art Thompson, Technical Project Director, after successfully jumping from a space capsule lifted by a helium balloon at a height of just over 128,000 feet above the Earth's surface. Baumgartner landed in the eastern New Mexico desert minutes after jumping from his capsule 24 miles (38.6km), above Earth AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
"When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive,'' he said after the jump.
Baumgartner says that traveling faster than sound is "hard to describe because you don't feel it.''
A screen grab from the live YouTube feed of Felix Baumgartner's jump from space.
With no reference points, "you don't know how fast you travel,'' he told reporters.
"Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are,'' he said.
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 around 128,000 feet (39km).
A screen grab from the live YouTube feed of Felix Baumgartner's jump from space.
"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.
"I think 20 tons have fallen from my shoulders. I prepared for this for seven years,'' he told German-language ServusTV in Austria in his first interview after the leap.
Live stream breaks YouTube record
A screen grab from the live YouTube feed of Felix Baumgartner's jump from space.
More than eight million people watched the livestream of Baumgartner's jump on Red Bull's YouTube channel.
The video sharing site posted on its blog that as well as his other records Baumgartner's now held the record for "creating a livestream with the most concurrent views ever on YouTube".
Mashable reported the Austrian diver had already broken an online record before he even jumped with 7.1 million people watching in anticipation of the freefall dive.
Moments after he landed, Red Bull posted this image of Felix Baumgartner on its Facebook page. The image immediately got hundreds of thousand of "likes" and was shared more than 50,000 times. Picture: Red Bull via Facebook
The 'live' online feed of the jump was delayed by 20 seconds in case something happened to daredevil Baumgartner.
Talkback radio in Australia operates on just a seven second delay, which is enough time for producers to cut any caller who makes vulgar or defamatory comments.
It is unclear why the Stratos producers needed the full 20 seconds. One theory doing the rounds is that if Baumgartner got into trouble, it would have been difficult to tell if he was unconscious or just falling in an ungainly manner.
Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space. This animation shows how Felix Baumgartner will be going up to 120.000 feet in a capsule attached to a helium balloon. Once he's up there he'll jump doing the highest parachute jump ever done by a human.
A few extra seconds would have proved handy in allowing the crew to analyse data from its 30 cameras on the ground, in the capsule and aboard a helicopter.
Fortunately, the mission was a great success so the delay proved to be nothing more than a sensible precaution.
Minor glitch
Felix Baumgartner of Austria sitting in his trailer during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico, USA on October 14, 2012.
Referring to a helmet problem that nearly forced him to abort the mission at the last minute, Baumgartner said: "Even on a day like this when you start so well, then there's a little glitch.
"And you think you'll have to abort -- what if you've prepared everything and it fails on a visor problem. But I finally decided to jump. And it was the right decision.''
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 113,740 feet, set in 1961.
Felix Baumgartner seen onscreen in a screen at mission control center in the capsule during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico.
The Austrian had been due to jump from 120,000 feet, but the balloon went higher than expected, to 39 kilometers.
The Red Bull Stratos mission was the second attempt for the skydiver after an initial bid last week was aborted at the last minute due to winds.
Risky ride
As the sun rises, workers prepare at the launch site, ahead of an attempt by Felix Baumgartner to break the speed of sound with his own body. Picture: Ross D. Franklin
The biggest risk Baumgartner faced was spinning out of control, which could exert G forces and make him lose consciousness. A controlled dive from the capsule was essential, putting him in a head-down position to increase speed.
More gruesomely, the skydiver's blood could have boiled if there were the slightest tear or crack in his pressurized spacesuit-like outfit, due to instant depressurisation at the extreme altitude.
Temperatures of minus 68 Celsius could also have had unpredictable consequences if his suit somehow failed.
Felix Baumgartner waves to his ground crew after landing safely following his record-breaking freefall from the stratosphere. Picture: Red Bull
The leap went off flawlessly though there was a minor problem as the capsule ascended: a heater failed on Baumgartner's helmet faceplate, meaning it was becoming fogged up when he exhaled.
After considering the options they decided to go ahead with the jump.
Baumgartner's 100-strong backup team includes retired US Air Force colonel Joe Kittinger, who had held one of the records he was trying to break: the highest freefall jump, which he made from 102,800 feet (31,333 metres) in 1960.
Felix Baumgartner's mother Ava Baumgartner, middle, watches with other family members and friends as his capsule lifts off. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
"Let the guardian angel take care of you," Kittinger told Baumgartner shortly before he leapt into the void.
The giant balloon - which holds 30 million cubic feet of helium - is needed to carry the Red Bull Stratos capsule to the stratosphere.
It is made of near transparent polyethylene strips even thinner than a dry cleaner bag, which are heat-sealed together. Very thin material is necessary to save weight.
The capsule and attached helium balloon which will carry Felix Baumgartner to the edge of space. Picture: Ross D. Franklin
The Austrian has been training for five years for the jump. He holds several previous records, notably with spectacular base jumps from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The jump was a hit on social media, with Twitter, YouTube and Facebook going into overdrive.
Here's a look at how the world, through the Internet, watched the jump.
Felix Baumgartner, of Austria, waves to the crowd after successfully jumping from a space capsule. Baumgartner landed in the eastern New Mexico desert minutes after jumping from his capsule 24 miles (38.6km), above Earth AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
YOUTUBE: As Baumgartner ascended in the balloon, so did the number of viewers watching YouTube's live stream of the event.
Its popularity grew as the moment of the jump drew closer, as people kept sharing links with each other on Twitter and Facebook and websites embedded the stream.
Nearly 7.3 million viewers were watching as Baumgartner sat on the edge of the capsule, moments before the jump.
Viral sensation puts Lego Felix up into space ready for free-fall. Vision: Stratos Jump
In the United States, the opportunity to watch the jump on TV was limited to the Discovery Channel, though more than 40 television networks in 50 total countries carried the live feed, organizers said. It was streamed by more than 130 digital outlets.
FACEBOOK: After Baumgartner landed, sponsor Red Bull posted a picture of the daredevil on his knees to Facebook.
In less than 40 minutes, the picture was shared more than 29,000 times and generated nearly 216,000 likes and more than 10,000 comments. Immediately after the jump, Red Bull solicited questions for Baumgartner through Facebook and Twitter, promising to answer three at a post-jump news conference.
TWITTER: During the jump and the moments after Baumgartner safely landed, half the worldwide trending topics on Twitter had something to do with the jump - pushing past tweets about Justin Bieber and seven National Football League games being played at the same time. Celebrities of all kinds weighed in, including athletes, actors and high-profile corporate executives.
``It's pretty amazing that I can watch, live on my computer, a man riding a balloon to the edge of space so he can jump out of it. #TheFuture,'' tweeted Wil Wheaton, who acted in the iconic science-fiction series Star Trek: The Next Generation.'
``Felix Baumgartner is a boss,'' tweeted Jozy Altidore, a soccer player for the U.S. men's national team.
REDDIT: Two threads related to the jump made the front page of Reddit.
Users quickly upvoted a request for Baumgartner to participate in an ``Ask Me Anything'' on the site, where users pepper someone on the site with questions about anything they want.
President Barack Obama held court as the subject of a similar thread in August.
Nearly 29,000 users weighed in on a separate thread about the jump itself, voting it up and down and robustly commenting.
Speaking before the launch, Baumgartner said he would be proud to be the first person to break the speed of sound in freefall.
"But really, I know that part of this entire experience will help make the next pressure suit safer for space tourists and aviators," the jumper pointed out.
The launch coincided with the 65th anniversary of American pilot Chuck Yeager breaking the speed of sound.
Austrian leaders were quick to congratulate Baumgartner .
"I warmly congratulate Felix Baumgartner on this great success, which was achieved with courage and perseverance and is finding worldwide attention,'' President Heinz Fischer reacted on his Facebook page almost immediately after Baumgartner had landed safely in New Mexico.
"Austria is proud of your accomplishment,'' he added.
Chancellor Werner Faymann also hailed the achievement in a statement.
"His jump from a height of around 39 kilometres was a fascinating event for millions of people worldwide,'' Faymann said.
"But I'm first and foremost happy everything went well.
"I congratulate Felix Baumgartner and his team for this impressive achievement. Together they went to the boundaries of human possibility and of physics.''
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