Skydiver launched in attempt to break sound barrier

A capsule carrying Felix Baumgartner rose from the desert of New Mexico early Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, beginning a three-hour ascent into the stratosphere. / CBS News

Last Updated 1:49 p.m. ET

ROSWELL, N.M. Lifted by a massive balloon, Austrian extreme athlete Felix Baumgartner ascended high above Earth on Sunday in his bid to complete a death-defying 23-mile free fall that could make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.

Baumgartner took off in a pressurized capsule carried by a 55-story ultra-thin helium balloon that is expected to ascend high above the New Mexico desert for nearly three hours. If plans go as expected, Baumgartner, in a high-tech suit, will then jump into a near vacuum with no oxygen to begin what is expected to be the fastest, farthest free fall from the highest-ever manned balloon.

Any contact with the capsule on his exit could tear the pressurized suit, a rip that could expose him to a lack of oxygen and temperatures as low as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. That could cause potentially lethal bubbles to form in his bodily fluids

Coincidentally, Baumgartner's attempted feat also marked the 65th anniversary of U.S. test pilot Chuck Yeager successful attempt to become the first man to officially break the sound barrier aboard an airplane.

At Baumgartner's insistence, some 30 cameras recorded the event. While it had been pegged as a live broadcast, it was actually under a 20-second delay.

• Meteorologist: Supersonic skydive "a go" on Sunday
• Skydiver's supersonic jump on hold due to winds
• Felix Baumgartner set for jump from edge of space

You may watch live coverage of Baumgartner's freefall attempt by clicking on the video player below.

Shortly after launch, screens at mission control showed the capsule as it rose above 10,000 feet, high above the New Mexico desert as cheers erupted from organizers. Baumgartner could be seen on video checking instruments inside the capsule.

Baumgartner's team included Joe Kittinger, the man who first attempted to break the sound barrier from 19.5 miles in 1960. With Kittinger inside mission control Sunday, the two men could be heard going over technical details as the launch began.

"You are right on the button, keep it right there," Kittinger told Baumgartner.

A view from Felix Baumgartner's capsule as it rises into the stratosphere, Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012.

/ CBS News

An hour into the flight, Baumgartner had ascended more than 63,000 feet and had gone through a trial run of the jump sequence that will send him plummeting toward Earth. Ballast was dropped to speed up the ascent.

Kittinger told him, "Everything is in the green. Doing great."

By 11:15 a.m. MDT (1715 GMT), he had reached more than 100,000 feet above Earth. Organizers earlier had estimated the jump to occur at roughly 12:30 p.m. MDT, though that timing was tentative.

If he succeeds in the death-defying feat, the man nicknamed "Fearless Felix" will break the 52-year-old altitude record by Kittinger, who reached a speed of 614 mph, just under the sound barrier.

Earlier in the day, mission control officials declared a "weather hold," delaying the launch. But about an hour later, organizers described conditions at the launch site as perfect. The jump was postponed twice last week because of high winds.

This attempt also will be the end of a five-year road for Baumgartner, a record-setting high-altitude jumper. He already made two preparation jumps in the area, one in March from 15 miles high and one in July from 18 miles high. It will also be the end of his extreme altitude jumping career; he has promised this will be his final jump.

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[markdiodati]

how does one get from terminal velocity (124mph) to 650 mph?

markdiodati
[e-mail]

[nulisecundus]

the capsule parachuted back down

[imaskeptic]

As long as he remains streamlined and doesn't tumble or spin, because of the thin air he will accelerate at nearly 32 ft per second per second. So he would achieve 690 miles an hour in about 21 seconds at which time he would have fallen 14,000 feet. Probably a bit longer because there is still air at 100,000 feet (or the idea of exceeding the speed of sound would be meaningless).

[KansasCity-2012]

Encapsulation in a pressure suit does enhance his chances or survival, but as with aircraft, the transonic point offers severe buffeting that will certainly beat up and nearly pulverize an unprotected human with insufficient E or Energy and inertia to pass through the sonic shock wave unharmed.

Meteors often break apart during transonic point of their trajectory which begin at far higher altitudes because their relative velocity to earths atmosphere is very high since they approach the earth at speeds exceeding 17,000 miles an hour.

A human jumping out at high altitude has a starting velocity of zero compared to an approaching meteor and the human's approach to transonic point takes place closer to the ground at a far denser portion of the atmosphere.

My prediction is that he will survive, but cough severely and experience disorientation for a few hours. He will have moderate cardioid-pulmonary distress until his asthma like symptoms abate. He may even experience memory loss.

[logicdog]

Has anyone noticed the level of sheer ignorance in some of these comments? Melvin, he's not trying to break "the speed of light", he's trying to break the "sound barrier", which basically means exceeding the speed of sound in a given density of atmosphere. And DIA, SPEED breaks the the sound barrier, and you can achieve that speed by falling from a very great height. Meteors DO break the sound barrier, but most are so small that the resulting shock wave is miniscule. Like your brain.

[MelvinII]

The speed of sound was already broken by Neal Armstrong over 50 years ago. That's not what this guy is trying to do.

[Groovyn]

Melvin, Melvin, Melvin...I thought the "miniscule brain" comment went too far...until I read your reply. As a matter of fact, he is trying to break the sound barrier (reread the article again...slowly and carefully, look up any big words like "sound" or "light"). And as a matter of common sense, trying to break the speed of light by jumping out of a capsule over Earth sounds as asinine as stating that Neal Armstrong (first man to walk on the moon) was the first man to break the sound barrier, perhaps even more so, lol.

[lienardo]

How about adding the altitude information (in feet) for both this goal and the previous record in a readily viewable area in the article's text?

[Gonzo358]

How is he supposed to fit his giant balls into that little capsule?

[Well_You_Aint_Me]

There is an Ap for that

[Eideard]

Could be a helluva crater!

[Diaa22]

How is he going to freefall without stepping outside the capsule? How is he going to step outside the capsule without exploding? Falling does not break the sound barrier or we would hear a sonic boom all the time because things fall out of the sky every day. Meteors and pieces of meteors, y'know. Good luck on a stupid idea.

[MelvinII]

DIAA, there's not enough air up there to have an explosion.

[Groovyn]

For someone alleging that this is a stupid idea, based on your questions, you sure do come off as stupid yourself. Less than five minutes of basic research would reveal that: 1) he steps outside of the capsule in a pressure suit, just like astronauts when the they space walk, 2) there is little air at the altitude he is falling from and therefore little to no air to offer resistance as he falls, based on simple calculations he should hit close or above the speed of sound prior to encountering atmosphere dense enough to slow his descent to terminal velocity in the lower atmosphere (about 150 mph), and finally 3) meteors do create a sonic boom, but often do so at an altitude too high to hear by normal means.

[robcph]

RIP