ONE GIANT LEAP! From Tom Leonard in New York
From the edge of space, skydiver plunges 24 miles to Earth faster than the speed of sound – and into the record books
FOR more than four nerve-racking minutes, he was a tiny white speck against the sky, hurtling from 24 miles above the Earth at up to 834mph.
Then his parachute opened and five minutes later, to the relief of the millions watching, ‘Fearless Felix’ Baumgartner was back on solid ground – having made the highest and fastest skydive in history.
In the process, the 43-year-old Austrian became the first freefall diver to break the sound barrier, and also broke the record for the highest-ever manned balloon ascent.
He made his death-defying jump from a tiny capsule that took him up to the edge of space. After days of delays due to bad weather, it took the professional daredevil around two-and-half hours to reach 128,100ft above the New Mexico desert – and less than ten minutes to plummet down.
He landed on his feet despite moments during the descent that had silenced his mission control as he appeared to lose control and plunge into a head-over-heels spin.
Falling to his knees, he punched the air in triumph as the control room, packed with scientific experts and family including his teary-eyed mother, Eva, erupted into roars of applause.
Speaking afterwards he said: ‘ Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble.
‘It’s not about breaking records anymore. It’s not about getting scientific data. It’s all about coming home.’
The extreme sportsman has skydived or base-jumped off statues and skyscrapers around the world, but yesterday’s multimillion pound feat – sponsored by energy drink maker Red Bull – was easily the biggest challenge of his career.
Nobody could be quite sure about the physical effects of breaking the sound barrier in freefall, and if Baumgartner’s pressurised spacesuit and helmet had been damaged it could have been catastrophic. As he ascended, there were fears the mission would
Little room to manoeuvre
once again be cancelled, after he reported that the heating device in his visor was not working properly, causing it to mist up.
But after a discussion with his mentor Joe Kittinger – an 84-year-old US Air Force colonel who set the previous freefall record in 1960 when he jumped from 102,800 feet – he decided to go ahead.
As the balloon stopped rising, Baumgartner began conducting his final exit checks. In his bulky suit, he had little room to manoeuvre inside the capsule and had to slide feet first through the hatch.
Gripping the rails on either side of the hatch, he hauled himself up on to an outside platform little bigger than a skateboard. After a final salute, he fell forwards in what his team describes as ‘bunny hop’ – pushing out with both feet at the same time to avoid falling into a potentially fatal flatspin.
His team had estimated he would fall at around 700mph in the first 50 seconds, but he managed to travel even faster, reaching 834mph during the first 50 seconds of the four minute, 20 second freefall.
His team had calculated that at about 100,000ft above sea level, Baumgartner would have had to accelerate to about 690mph to break the sound barrier
The speed of sound varies depending on the temperature and dryness of the air. Where the air is colder, it travels more slowly. But he managed a much higher speed and so was travelling at one and a quarter the speed of sound before he started to slow down as the thicker air closer to Earth created drag on his body.
His success left Col Kittinger with only one record – for the longest time spent in a freefall. But he was clearly as relieved as anyone to see the others broken at last. ‘Couldn’t have done it better myself,’ he joked as Baumgartner glided to the ground.