Witness this worlds first

Loads of courage from this guy. Glad he made it successfully.

As someone who knows some things about supersonic flight, this guy's got some big, hairy ones.

Originally Posted by Paladiamors I love you, I Burnt the Toast!

I believe that they did have cameras on the suit, but not hooked up to a transmitter (bandwidth/weight of equipment problems possibly?).

If they did have them, then more than likely we could be seeing footage coming out in a couple of weeks.

Aye, that was impressive... and it was nice for him to be the main person who was talking to Felix Baumgartner and running through the checks with him just before the jump.

Presenter said there will be a 2 hour documentary in around a months time.

Edit: There's some of the footage here:
http://www.redbullstratos.com/#!lightbox

Indeed it was - the old fella's been coaching and guiding Felix Baumgartner for a fair while as I understand it, and no doubt said "Your helmet's visor's fogged and the heater's not working? Meh, don't worry about it Felix, just go go go!"

Breaking the sound barrier from a standing start without a vehicle. He wasn't the first person to exceed Mach 1 in free fall; that goes to George Smith, who in 1955 had to eject from his F-100 Super Sabre in an uncontrolled dive at Mach 1.05 (he lost his boots, socks, flight gloves, wristwatch, ring, and helmet to the airstream when he left the plane, and suffered massive internal injuries that left him unconscious for five days in hospital). He doesn't get the record for fastest free fall; that goes to Bill Weaver, who in 1966 experienced a severe unstart of the right engine in his SR-71A and had the plane disintegrate around him, leaving him in free fall at Mach 3.18.

But neither of those were planned; Baumgartner was the first person to do it deliberately, and he and Kittinger deserve the props for their actions -- particularly Kittinger's willingness to go up and do it again because they needed more data.

Still, you know that it leads to an interesting perspective for other countries -- it has to suck when an energy drink has a better space program than your country...