Video - Extreme Skydive from 120,000 Feet

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baumgartner before jump
Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria seen before his jump at the first manned test flight for Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, New Mexico on March 15, 2012. (Image credit: Jay Nemeth/Red Bull Content Pool)

After two delays due to high wind, Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner will attempt a record-breaking dive from the edge of space today (Oct. 14), weather permitting.

The 55-story balloon will lift off from Roswell, N.M., known for a rumored UFO crash. The plan for Baumgartner, 43, is to ascend to an altitude of 120,000 feet (36,600 meters) in a pressurized capsule suspended from the high-altitude balloon. Once there, at the edge of space, Baumgartner will step out to begin his 5.5-minute freefall back to planet Earth. Within some 40 seconds his speed will ramp up enough to break the sound barrier, a first-time feat by a freefall skydiver.

If all goes as planned, Baumgartner would topple a record reached in 1960 by U.S. Air Force Col. Joseph Kittinger, who made a similar jump from a lower altitude -- 102,800 feet (31,000 m). And he may do it on the 65th anniversary of the first supersonic flight by Chuck Yeager in the X-1 rocket plane in 1947, according to SPACE.com, a sister site of LiveScience.

Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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