[Around the Web] Daredevil Performs Extreme (Near-space) Skydiving to Break Records

"One giant leap for mankind" indeed. 

If you ever heard (or even remember) the lines of a certain song, it went like this: "I believe I can fly/I believe I could touch the sky..." well, cheesy as it may sound, one man took an extreme dare to prove that man can accomplish anything by risking almost everything.

And that man? Felix Baumgartner, Austrian daredevil skydiver and BASE jumper. Under the Red Bull Stratos project, he jumped from a height of 24.261 miles (39.04488 kilometers) above New Mexico, and almost at the edge of outer space. Equipped with nothing else except for a pressurized suit and cameras to track him from there on, it totally was, a leap of faith. And Altair would've been so proud.

"That's my boy."

Post-landing, Felix was able to break three previously-held records:

• highest manned balloon flight (at 39.04488 kilometers)
• first human to break the sound barrier without assistance of a vehicle, and
• highest skydive

There was supposed to be a fourth (longest free fall), but that record, as it seems, still elusive to capture.


Sources:

Ars Technica

Red Bull Stratos project blog 

Felix Baumgartner Wikipedia entry