Skydiver Breaks Sound Barrier in 24-Mile Jump

Felix Baumgartner, a 43-year-old Austrian adventurer, successfully jumped from a height of 128,100 feet on Sunday.

Clad in a spacesuit, he had been carried into the stratosphere above Roswell, N.M., by an enormous helium-filled balloon. After stepping out of his unpressurized gondola, Baumgartner reached a speed of 834 mph thus breaking the sound barrier 45 seconds into his nine-minute return to Earth.

He deployed a glider parachute 4:19 minutes after beginning his descent, maneuvering himself to a stand-up landing near the launch site.

Baumgartner's jump, which was sponsored by Red Bull, was aired live online and quickly posted on YouTube. The feat set a new freefall altitude record, and he became the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.

Baumgartner's jump occurred 65 years to the day after Capt. Chuck Yaeger became the first person to break the sound barrier. Yaeger's record run was in the rocket-powered Bell X-1 plane at an altitude of 45,000 ft.