The best new drama of this television season was played out on Sunday afternoon thanks to the Discovery Channel and daredevil Felix Baumgartner who broke the speed of sound by skydiving from outer space.

A project that took over 2 1/2 years to pull off, Baumgartner had Red Bull sponsor this crazy idea where he a group of scientists to attempt the highest skydive on record.  This would take the creation of the Red Bull Stratos capsule that Felix would be transported in attached to a hot air balloon.  The capsule reminds you of the old school capsules that were used in the historic early days of space flight.

The balloon would be stabilized at a record height over 120,000 feet above the earth from Roswell, New Mexico, and Baumgartner would leap in a free fall with a parachute and then would land on the ground.

Any number of things could have gone wrong, and it looked like during the assent upward that the balloon was having a hard time stabilizing in space.  At 128,1000 feet - just over 24 miles above earth - Felix made his leap in sub-freezing temperatures (which warmed up from 1 degree to about 15-20 degrees at one point) in a "space suit" that provided him with hopefully enough oxygen for the jump.

Baumgartner could have burned up during the jump, or could have spun out of control, but he stabilized himself during the jump and completed the World Record jump (which also set the World Record for the highest manned balloon flight, and the highest speed for a human in free fall).

Felix was falling for 4 minutes and 17 seconds, and at one point at a rate of 834 Miles Per Hour - breaking the speed of sound by hitting Mach 1.24.

Word is Millions around the world saw Sunday's jump, and Millions have seen the replay on YouTube in one form or another.  In case you missed it, watch high drama at its finest with this death defying leap from outer space.

 

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