See what Felix Baumgartner saw during his jump
Felix Baumgartner reached 834 mph during free fall / Red Bull
ROSWELL, N.M. In a giant leap from more than 24 miles up, a daredevil skydiver shattered the sound barrier Sunday while making the highest jump ever — a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert.
And now, video is available of what it all looked like from Felix Baumbartner's point of view.
Baumgartner hit Mach 1.24, or 833.9 mph, according to preliminary data, and became the first person to reach supersonic speed without traveling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,100 feet above the Earth.
Landing on his feet in the desert, the man known as "Fearless Felix" lifted his arms in victory to the cheers of jubilant friends and spectators who closely followed his descent in a live television feed at the command center
One giant leap for a skydiver
"When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data," he said after the jump. "The only thing you want is to come back alive."
A worldwide audience watched live on the Internet via cameras mounted on his capsule as Baumgartner, wearing a pressurized suit, stood in the doorway of his pod, gave a thumbs-up and leapt into the stratosphere.
But, reports CNET's Christopher MacManus, what wasn't seen was the view from Baumgartner's own chest-mounted camera.
"The video from this perspective reveals just how terrifying and awe-inspiring our world looks at such extreme altitudes and the speeds ... at which he was traveling," MacManus observes.
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If you watched the live feed, he was flipping around looking almost lifeless for about 10 seconds, man my heart was racing! Then whoosh he straightened out like a dart... the world cheered!
Amazing!