By most accounts, all the hard work paid off. According to preliminary
findings cited by Brian Utley, an official observer monitoring the
mission, the 43-year-old Baumgartner flew higher than anyone ever in a
helium balloon and broke the record for the highest jump.
Still,
even Baumgartner seemed taken aback when Utley detailed how fast he had
fallen at one point -- 833.9 mph, or Mach 1.24, smashing his goal to
break the sound barrier.
"I was fighting all the way down to regain control because I wanted to
break the speed of sound," said Baumgartner, who did it all with
nothing but a space suit, helmet and parachute. "And then I hit it."
After
a weather delay of several hours, he set off at 9:30 a.m. MT (11:30
a.m. ET) Sunday from Roswell, New Mexico, in breezy, clear conditions,
strapped into a pressurized capsule that hung from a giant helium
balloon. Over the next two hours, he rose high into the stratosphere.
Then
he ran through a 40-step checklist, opened the hatch, disconnected from
the capsule, and climbed out onto a step the size of a skateboard.
"Guardian angels will take care of you," said Mission Control just before he jumped.
"The whole world is watching now," Baumgartner responded.
After giving a salute, he jumped.
Baumgartner
had trained to maximize his speed by forming a crouched "delta"
position, and his team on the ground watched for any signs of
potentially perilous spins or twists.
He experienced one
hitch during his fall about three minutes in, reporting, "My visor is
fogging up." But more problematic was when he began to veer into a
"flat spin" -- which, if it continued, could send blood rushing to his
head and left him out of control.
"There was a period of time
where I really thought, 'I am in trouble,'" Baumgartner said, recalling
how he considered pushing a button that would have released a drogue
chute and ended his bid "to fly supersonic."
"But after a
couple of seconds, I had that feeling I'm getting it under control. And
I did," he added. "And that's why I broke the speed of sound today."
After free-falling for about four minutes and 20 seconds, he deployed a parachute for the final mile or two down to Earth.
"There's the chute," said a specialist in Mission Control, and the control room broke into applause.
As
soon as Baumgartner landed, he dropped to his knees and raised his
fists -- as the team at Mission Control in Roswell burst into applause.
While he and his team had prepared diligently for the jump, his survival was no guarantee.
They
practiced how to avoid getting trapped in a dangerous "horizontal
spin," much like the one Baumgartner feared was happening in the midst
of his free-fall. His life also depended on the integrity of his
pressure suit, since temperatures high up were expected to hit 70
degrees below zero Fahrenheit or lower, and the atmosphere was so thin
that his blood would have vaporized if he wasn't sufficiently
protected.
Testing that pressurized flight suit and helmet --
which restrict mobility and together weigh 100 pounds -- was one goal
of the mission, as it could save an astronaut's life if a manned
spacecraft malfunctioned. The outfit had sensors and recorders to
measure everything from his speed to his heart rate.
Sunday's
successful jump breaks the record set in 1960 by Col. Joe Kittinger,
who fell from 102,800 feet as part of a U.S. Air Force mission. More
than 50 years later, Kittinger was a consultant on Baumgartner's
effort, even serving as the lone person from Mission Control talking to
the Austrian throughout his attempt.
Kittinger acknowledged
the ups and downs of the years-long effort Sunday. The former aviator
was all smiles in lauding Baumgartner, whom he said "did perfect," and
all the others involved in making the mission a success.
"It
was a team effort, and Felix did a fantastic job," Kittinger said. "It
was an honor for all of us to work with this brave guy."
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