‘Fearless’ Felix Baumgartner Breaks Skydiving World Record, Sound Barrier
No one gets high better than Felix Baumgartner.
Austrian BASE-jumper Baumgartner, 43, broke a 52-year-old skydiving altitude record and the sound barrier by jumping out of a space capsule 128,100 feet above the Earth in Roswell, N.M. on Sunday. During the jump, Baumgartner accelerated to 833.9 mph — reaching Mach 1.24 and breaking the sound barrier — also a new record. Events and video leading up to the 4:20 minute jump (no, seriously, that's how long it took, stoner) are at the Stratos' Project's site.
Baumgartner also broke the world record for the highest manned balloon flight by rising to a height of nearly 25 miles. As he fell to the Earth, Baumgartner was thrown into a near-flat spin and had to pull the ripcord on his parachute earlier than planned.
We assume Baumgartner may have also set a world record for height at which one screamed expletives and soiled one's pressurized spacesuit.