Extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner dropped to Earth from more than 24.5 miles in the air in a historic fall from the edge of space in his attempt to become the world's first supersonic skydiver. Baumgartner stepped out of a capsule pulled by a 55-story helium balloon after it had reached the height of 127,718 feet. As he softly landed on Earth with the help of a parachute about five minutes later, Baumgartner raised his hands in victory. Baumgartner was expected to hit a speed of 690 mph before activating his parachute about 5,000 above the ground in southeastern New Mexico. It wasn't immediately certain whether he had broken the speed of sound during his free-fall, which was one of the goals of the mission. Before sunrise the former Austrian paratrooper's crew began unpacking the 30 million cubic foot helium balloon to hoist the capsule that will carry him 23 miles up in the sky. The three hour ascent began on Sunday at about 9:30am MDT. The jump was postponed due to wind on Monday, then aborted twice more for the same reason on Tuesday and Thursday. Meteorologists say conditions will finally be favorable for the jump Sunday morning.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2217412/Felix-Baumgartner-Supersonic-skydiver-drops-earth-nearly-128-000-feet-Earth.html#ixzz29Iv7llAD
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