Tensa wait. Raised from early morning, dressed for the occasion, after many hours prepared inside his capsule, ready to face the biggest challenge of his life. Felix Baumgartner became the first human being to break the sound barrier, more than 1,100 kilometers per hour, without mechanical help. He threw himself in free fall from 39,068 meters and only took 40 seconds to achieve his goal.
Under normal conditions, in the Earth's atmosphere, the speed of sound is 1,234 kilometers per hour, while in the stratosphere it can be reached at around 1,110 km / h due to the lower air resistance, the mission team explained.
The good weather accompanied him throughout the day. Completely clear sky for an adventure that finally began around 5:30 pm and that did not finish until 8:07 pm, when he made his reckless jump. Without thinking too much. They gave him the order ... and zas.
The operation, scheduled for noon, had to be delayed due to strong winds at the Roswell air base in the state of New Mexico (United States). When the gusts dropped from 72 km / h to five, the experiment began. Last Tuesday the mission was suspended due to the strong gusts. That's why the chief meteorologist of the project, Don Day, was permanently aware of the situation of the winds at 12,000 meters of altitude before giving the go-ahead.
The 43-year-old high-risk sportsman had planned to climb into his capsule at 2:00 p.m., although the operation was finally delayed first until 4:00 p.m. and it was not until 90 minutes later that the Austrian finally started. his ascension.
Overcoming the dangerous limit of 800 meters, below which it would be practically impossible to react and open the parachute in case something went wrong, everyone relaxed. Even Felix Baumgartner's mother, who could not hold back tears as she watched her son begin his dangerous journey. "I think that not only I felt relieved, but all of us here," said the brother.
Little more than two hours inside a ship stretched by a helium balloon (with a size of 180 meters in one of the phases of the ascent) that took him to the stratosphere to launch into the void. The delicate balloon, made of a plastic of only 0.002 centimeters thick and open to cover 16 hectares, is ten times thinner than plastic bags used to freeze food.
At over 39,000 meters high, he climbed onto a platform to execute his feat. In Delta position (like a V) to avoid friction, in about 40 seconds it reached the speed of sound (it reached 1,342 km / h) wearing a pressurized and flame-retardant suit that protected it from temperatures of minus 70 degrees and avoided that the blood boiled him due to the low atmospheric pressure. He continued in free fall four minutes and sixteen seconds before opening his parachute to arrive placidly to the ground.
The tension had passed. All the members of the project were already breathing quietly after a few moments of nervousness in which the Austrian went around spinning uncontrollably. "Keep talking," asked Joe Kittinger, the man who in 1960 jumped from more than 31 kilometers and this time served as an assistant from the control center. At 20:17 hours he set foot on the ground again.
Baumgartner had been preparing himself for a record-breaking task for five years: the height parachute jump, the highest manned balloon flight in the world and the first time a person breaks the sound barrier. He did not get, however, the longest free fall in history, which was in four minutes and 36 seconds.
"We want to extend the limits of humanity a bit more," said the paratrooper born in Salzburg hours before the start of the challenge, wrapped up by his family and friends from Austria. "It's a rollercoaster of emotions," said the father of the athlete, worried, as everyone, for the welfare of his son.
The project costs are estimated at around 50 million euros, although Red Bull has not released an official figure. The repercussion of the jump has been spectacular, since millions of people followed with nervousness the impressive Austrian milestone.