An Austrian adventurer planning the highest sky dive in history has announced that he will make the record attempt later this year. Felix Baumgartner will jump from a balloon 36.5km up (23 miles/120,000ft), where any leak in his pressurised suit would cause his blood to vaporize. He will fall so fast that he becomes the first person to go faster than the speed of sound unaided by a machine. Many have sought to achieve the feat down the decades but all have failed.
On the 15th of March 2012 he completed the first of two test jumps from 71,581 feet (21.818 km). During the jump he spent approximately three minutes and 43 seconds in free fall, reaching speeds of more than 360 miles per hour (580 km/h), before opening his parachute. In total, the jump lasted approximately eight minutes and eight seconds and Baumgartner became only the third person to safely parachute from a height of over 13.5 miles (21.7 km). The date for the big event jump above 37km is still to be determined.
Via Jalopnik
