Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner broke the speed of sound -- at one point hitting Mach 1.24, according to a team official -- during his record-setting jump from 128,000 feet Sunday over southeastern New Mexico.

  • Read the full press release from Red Bull Stratos 
  • By the Numbers:
    • Jumped from altitude of 39,044 meters or 128,097 feet
    • Hit maximum estimated speed of 1,137 km/h
    • Freefall lasted 4 minutes and 19 seconds
    • Broke record for highest freefall
    • Broke record for highest manned balloon flight

"He made it -- tears of joy from Mission Control," the team said in a live feed.

Baumgartner left the capsule attached to a huge helium balloon at 128,000 feet -- 24 miles up -- higher than anyone before him.

After an initial free fall, he opened his parachute and glided down to the ground, where he fell to his knees with his fists raised, then stood up, smiling and hugging members of his team.

It may not have been the longest-lasting free fall. Mission Control said during the jump that Baumgartner did not "break the record for time elapsed" before pulling the parachute.

"Guardian angels will take care of you," said Mission Control just before he jumped.

"The whole world is watching now," Baumgartner said, before giving a salute and jumping.

Applause broke out in Mission Control when he touched down.

With nothing but a space suit, helmet and parachute, Baumgartner hoped to be the first person to break the sound barrier without the protection of a vehicle.

Even before jumping, he set a record for floating higher in a balloon -- about 24 miles -- than anyone else before.

At that height, more than three times the cruising altitude of an average airliner, the thin air provides so little resistance that after just 40 seconds, he was expected to be free-falling faster than 690 miles per hour.

The Austrian daredevil, dubbed "Fearless Felix," was prepared, having "done the hard work," his coach Andy Walshe told reporters last week.

Baumgartner ascended steadily in a capsule hanging from a helium balloon. Then he opened the hatch, climbed out, jumped off the step with a bunny hop, and formed a crouched "delta" position to maximize his acceleration.

The plan: to fall most of the way in less than five minutes, then deploy a parachute for the final 5,000 feet to earth.

The attempt has serious risks. He and his team have practiced how he can avoid getting trapped in a dangerous "horizontal spin." His life will also depend on the integrity of his pressure suit, since temperatures could hit 70 degrees below zero Fahrenheit or lower, and the atmosphere will be so thin that his blood would vaporize if he were unprotected.

If he loses consciousness during the five-minute plunge, he will survive only if his parachute deploys automatically.

Another unknown: the effects on the body of breaking the sound barrier. While reaching such speeds can cause stress on an aircraft, planners for this jump believe there will be little effect on Baumgartner because he will be at an altitude at which there is so little air that shock waves are barely transmitted.

After a weather delay of several hours on Sunday morning, the balloon rose from its launch site at 11:30 a.m. ET, with Baumgartner in a capsule hanging beneath it.

He almost made an attempt Tuesday from his launch site in Roswell, New Mexico. But as he was waiting in his capsule for the giant helium balloon to finish inflating, a gust of wind twisted the balloon like a spinnaker, and ruined it.

Baumgartner is an Austrian helicopter pilot and former soldier who has parachuted from such landmarks as the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

He has been preparing for his latest feat for five years -- both physically and mentally.

"You have to remember all the procedures," he said in an interview during testing for the jump. "You know you're in a really hostile environment. And you cannot think about anything else. You have to be focused. Otherwise, you're gonna die."

The balloon being used is light and translucent. The material is only .0008 of an inch thick, one-tenth as thick as a sandwich bag, and it will change shape and size as it rises.

After Tuesday's launch was scrubbed, Baumgartner tweeted, "We've made it so far, there's no way turning back."

The 43-year-old former military parachutist is backed up by the Red Bull Stratos team, which includes a former NASA crew surgeon, record-breaking aviators, and designers of innovative aircraft.

Baumgartner has previously parachuted from such landmarks as the Petronas Towers in Malaysia and the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.

He has been preparing for his latest feat for five years -- both physically and mentally.

"You have to remember all the procedures," he said in an interview during testing for the jump. "You know you're in a really hostile environment. And you cannot think about anything else. You have to be focused. Otherwise, you're gonna die."

The record for such a jump is currently held by Col. Joe Kittinger, who in 1960 jumped from 102,800 feet as part of a U.S. Air Force mission. More than 50 years later, Kittinger is a consultant on Baumgartner's effort, and will be the one from mission control who speaks to Baumgartner over the headset throughout the attempt.

After a test jump earlier this year, when the two lost communication with each other, Baumgartner told CNN he realized how much he relies on Kittinger as a mentor.

"Immediately you can feel how lonely you feel," Baumgartner said. "I wanted to hear the voice because I am so used to this. Every time we have been practicing on the ground, Joe was talking to me. So I am used to the voice, and [it] makes me feel safe."

Kittinger has also been giving Baumgartner advice on what to expect during his attempt. For example, he said, when you're at an altitude so high that you see the curvature of the earth, "there's no way you can tell how fast you're going, because there's no visual cues."

He also learned the importance of patience back when he was making jumps, Kittinger told reporters last week.

"On one occasion, I waited 30 days to launch a stratospheric balloon," he said.

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Press Release from Red Bull Stratos:

Austria's Felix Baumgartner earned his place in the history books on Sunday after overcoming concerns with the power for his visor heater that impaired his vision and nearly jeopardized the mission. Baumgartner reached an estimated speed of 1,137 km jumping from the stratosphere, which when certified will make him the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and set several other records* while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.

ROSWELL, New Mexico - After flying to an altitude of 39,044 meters (128,097 feet) in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed Sunday morning a record breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane. The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also broke two other world records (highest freefall, highest manned balloon flight), leaving the one for the longest freefall to project mentor Col. Joe Kittinger.

Baumgartner landed safely with his parachute in the desert of New Mexico after jumping out ofhis space capsule at 39,044 meters and plunging back towards earth, hitting a maximum of speed of 1,137 km/h through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4:19-minute long freefall. Baumgartner's jump lasted a total of 9:03 minutes. Countless millions of people around the world watched his ascent and jump live on television broadcasts and live stream on the Internet. At one point during his freefall Baumgartner appeared to spin rapidly, but he quickly re-gained control and moments later opened his parachute as members of the ground crew cheered and viewers around the world heaved a sigh of relief.

"It was an incredible up and down today, just like it's been with the whole project," a relieved Baumgartner said. "First we got off with a beautiful launch and then we had a bit of drama with a power supply issue to my visor. The exit was perfect but then I started spinning slowly. I thought I'd just spin a few times and that would be that, but then I started to speed up. It was really brutal at times. I thought for a few seconds that I'd lose consciousness. I didn't feel a sonic boom because I was so busy just trying to stabilize myself. We'll have to wait and see if we really broke the sound barrier. It was really a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

Baumgartner and his team spent five years training and preparing for the mission that is designed to improve our scientific understanding of how the body copes with the extreme conditions at the edge of space.
Baumgartner had endured several weather-related delays before finally lifting off under bright blue skies and calm winds on Sunday morning. The Red Bull Stratos crew watching from Mission Control broke out into spontaneous applause when the balloon lifted off.

* The data on the records set by the jump are preliminary pending confirmation from the authorized governing bodies.