04-10-2012, 12:25 AM
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#1
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Professor
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,911
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April 9, 2012 First step's a doozer.
One giant leap
Quote:
On Thursday, the adventurer leapt from a balloon-borne capsule 71,500ft (22km) above New Mexico, landing safely eight minutes later.
The dive was intended to test all his equipment before he tries to free-fall from 120,000ft later this year.
In doing so, he would better the mark of 102,800ft set by US Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger in 1960.
Even just Thursday's jump puts Baumgartner in a select group as only Kittinger and Russian Eugene Andreev have descended from higher.
Baumgartner, who is famous for stunts such as jumping off the Petronas Towers, is seen in the special pressure suit he must wear to stay alive in the thin air and extreme cold of the stratosphere.
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From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17399985
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