World affairs
Highest ever parachute jump a success
Felix Baumgartner has made history today to become the man to complete the highest parachute jump of all time in an event that was streamed live on JOE.
Fans of JOE, who were given permission to stream the Red Bull Stratos jump live, saw the Austrian man ascend to over 128,000 feet (39 kilometres) before jumping.
The launch was due to take place five days ago but was aborted due to unsuitable weather conditions.
With his family looking on from mission control and around 8 million people watching on Red Bull’s live stream Felix started his ascent around 3 O’Clock today shortly and shortly after 7 O’Clock Felix made history by beating Col. Joe Kittinger’s record set with a similar leap from 102,800 feet in 1960.
Baumgartner landed safely in Roswell, New Mexico having accomplished his goal and at the time of writing looks likely to get official confirmation that he has beaten the world records for highest parachute jump, highest manned balloon flight and fastest ever human freefall.
More details and reaction to the historic jump can be found on redbullstratos.com
All we can say is Fearless Felix is a bit of a legend.
have the record keepers checked the contents of his underpants?