Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space. This animation shows how Felix Baumgartner will be going up to 120.000 feet in a capsule attached to a helium balloon. Once he's up there he'll jump doing the highest parachute jump ever done by a human.
EXTREME athlete Felix Baumgartner has started his ascent to 36km above Earth, hoping to make a death-defying free fall that could make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.
Baumgartner took off about 2.30am AEDT in a pressurised capsule carried by a 55-storey ultra-thin helium balloon that is expected to take nearly three hours to climb into the stratosphere.
Baumgartner will 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.
Watch the countdown to Felix Baumgartner's historic attempt here.
Felix Baumgartner is preparing again to jump from more than 36km up after two attempts were thwarted by high winds.
Baumgartner's team included Joe Kittinger, the man who first attempted to break the sound barrier from 31km in 1960. With Kittinger inside mission control, 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.
The capsule and attached helium balloon carrying Felix Baumgartner lifts off as he attempts to break the speed of sound with his own body. Picture: Ross D. Franklin
Earlier in the day, mission control officials declared a "weather hold", delaying the launch. But about an hour later, organisers described conditions at the launch site as perfect, and said the balloon would be inflated.
If he succeeds in the death-defying feat, the man nicknamed "Fearless Felix" will break a 52-year-old altitude record by Kittinger, who jumped from about 31km and reached a speed just under the sound barrier.
The jump was postponed on Monday and Tuesday because of unexpected winds.
As the sun rises, workers prepare at the launch site, ahead of an attempt by Felix Baumgartner to break the speed of sound with his own body. Picture: Ross D. Franklin
This attempt will hopefully 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 24km high and one in July from 29km high. It will also be the end of his extreme altitude jumping career; he has promised this will be his final jump.
Coincidentally, Sunday also marks the 65th anniversary of US test pilot Chuck Yeager successful attempt to become the first man to officially break the sound barrier aboard an airplane.
Baumgartner plans to travel faster than the speed of sound with only the benefit of a high-tech suit.
Baumgartner prepares to jump. Picture: AP
Dr Jonathan Clark, Baumgartner's medical director, has told reporters he expects the pressurised spacesuit to protect him from the shock waves of breaking the sound barrier. If all goes well and he survives the jump, NASA could certify a new generation of spacesuits for protecting astronauts and provide an escape option from spacecraft at 120,000 feet, he said.
Any contact with the capsule on his exit could tear the pressurised suit. A rip could expose him to a lack of oxygen and temperatures as low as 56 degrees below zero. It could cause potentially lethal bubbles to form in his bodily fluids, a condition known as "boiling blood".
Dr Clark is a NASA space shuttle crew surgeon who lost his wife, Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia accident. No one knows what happens to a body when it breaks the sound barrier, Dr Clark said.
Winds have to be under about 3.6km/h for Baumgartner to start his ascent to the stratosphere from this desert town better known as the site of a rumoured UFO landing in 1947.
Jumping from more than three times the height of the average cruising altitude for jetliners, Baumgartner's expects to hit a speed of 1110km/h or more before he activates his parachute at 9500 feet above sea level, or about 5000 feet above the ground in southeastern New Mexico. The total jump should take about 10 minutes.
The energy drink maker Red Bull, which is sponsoring the feat, has been promoting a live internet stream of the event from nearly 30 cameras on the capsule, the ground and a helicopter. But organisers said there will be a 20-second delay in their broadcast of footage in case of a tragic accident.
After the jump, Baumgartner says he plans to settle down with his girlfriend and fly helicopters on mountain rescue and firefighting missions in the US and Austria.
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