Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria is seen in the capsule on a screen at mission control center during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico, USA in this Sunday handout photo. — Reuters
ROSWELL, New Mexico — Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner has landed on Earth after a jump from the stratosphere in what could be the world's first supersonic skydive. Baumgartner landed in eastern New Mexico desert minutes after jumping from 28,000 feet (8,534 meters), or 24 miles (38.6 kilometers). He lifted his arms in victory shortly after landing. He took off in a pressurized capsule carried by a 55-story ultra-thin helium balloon. He jumped from more than three times the height of the average cruising altitude for jetliners. Baumgartner was expected to hit a speed of 690 mph (1,110 kilometers) before activating his parachute about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) above the ground in southeastern New Mexico. Cheers broke out as Baumgartner, 43, jumped from a tiny shelf outside the 11-by-8-foot (3.3-by-2.4 meter) fiberglass and acrylic capsule that was carried to 128,000 feet by an enormous balloon. “We love you Felix!” screamed the crowd as he plunged through the stratosphere. “My visor is fogging up,” he gasped over the radio and he fell through the air moments before his parachute opened to the applause of the crowd on the ground, including his teary-eyed mother, father and girlfriend, watching on monitors miles below. He landed about 10 minutes later, having broken the world record for the highest altitude jump by a skydiver, sponsors said. As he prepared to jump from the pressurized capsule, Baumgartner went through a checklist of 40 items with project adviser Joe Kittinger, holder of a 19-mile high altitude parachute jump record that Baumgartner hopes to smash. He checked through an equipment list from his seat and expressed concern that his astronaut-like helmet was not heating properly. “This is very serious, Joe,” said Baumgartner as the capsule, designed to remain at 55 degrees Fahrenheit ascended in skies where temperatures were expected to plunge below -91.8 F (-67.8 C), according to the project's website. “Sometimes it's getting foggy when I exhale. ... I do not feel heat.” Baumgartner's ascent into the stratosphere took about 2 1/2 hours. The 30 million-cubic-foot (850,000-cubic-meter) plastic balloon, is about one-tenth the thickness of a Ziploc bag, or roughly as thin as a dry cleaner bag. — Agencies
