The Austrian athlete Felix Baumgartner won a place in the history books yesterday, October 14, after becoming the first human being to break the speed of sound in free fall . After flying up to the stratosphere, at an altitude of 39,045 meters, aboard a space capsule propelled by a helium-filled hot air balloon, Baumgartner jumped towards the earth's surface, reaching a maximum speed of 1,342.8 kilometers per hour on the descent. , and landed safely in the New Mexico desert after 4 minutes and 20 seconds of free fall. Millions of people around the world witnessed his feat, which he carried out in a pressurized suit, in order to protect themselves from temperatures of up to 70 degrees below zero that are recorded in the stratosphere, the layer of the Earth's atmosphere that is It extends between approximately 10 and 50 km of altitude, where the ozone layer is located.
The Austrian adventurer, who has been preparing for this mission for five years, can boast of having simultaneously broken three records: being the first to exceed the speed of sound without mechanical assistance, performing the parachute jump from the highest height and ballooning to the furthest point from the mainland.
