Source: Mashable
Felix Baumgartner jumped from a capsule dangling from a balloon at 127,900 feet today, breaking the record for the highest altitude skydive in history.
Even though he detected a problem with a heater that was designed to keep his visor clear, he leapt from the capsule anyway, parachuting safely to earth.
The daredevil space jump was an Internet sensation, with the live stream video on YouTube of the space jump breaking all records by orders of magnitude. At this writing, YouTube had more than 8 million people watching its livestream.
The launch had been delayed several times because of wins, which must be nearly calm for the balloon to begin its ascent. For the balloon to get from the ground near Roswell New Mexico to its maximum altitude of 127,800 feet took nearly 2 1/2 hours, but once Felix Baumgartner leapt from the capsule, he quickly plummeted to earth. It’s not clear yet if he broke the sound barrier.
