On the 65th anniversary of the day Chuck Yeager became the first man to break the sound barrier in a jet, Felix Baumgartner became the first sky-diver to break the sound barrier.
"The 43-year-old former Austrian paratrooper with more than 2,500 jumps behind him had taken off early Sunday in a capsule carried by a 55-story ultra-thin helium balloon." The Associated Press reported.
In a record busting time of over 833.9 miles per hour or Mach 1.24, Baumgartner shattered the previous free-fall record of speed and altitude set by Joe Kittinger half a century ago.
But it was not merely an Evel Kineval type stunt, Baumgartner's free-fall from an altitude of 128,100 feet, was financed in part by NASA.
"Mr. Baumgartner was backed by a NASA-style mission control operation at an airfield in Roswell that involved 300 people," The New York Times reported. "Including more than 70 engineers, scientists and physicians who have been working for five years on the project."
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