Cancelled: Skydiver`s 1,000kph supersonic 37km stratosphere jump

10.10.2012 [10:17]
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Baku, October 10 (AZERTAC). Extreme athlete and skydiver Felix Baumgartner has cancelled his planned death-defying 37km (120,000 ft) free fall into the New Mexico desert because of high winds.

The 43-year-old former military parachutist from Austria had hoped to become the first skydiver to break the sound barrier and shatter three other world records.

But the weather on Tuesday forced his team to cancel his planned ascent in a 55-storey, ultra-thin helium balloon that was to take him to the stratosphere for a jump that will make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier and shatter three other world records.

Because the balloon is so delicate, it could only take flight if winds were 2 mph or below.

The balloon was set to launch at about 4.30pm UAE time from a field near the airport in a flat dusty town that until now has been best known for a rumored 1947 UFO landing.

After a nearly three-hour ascent to just short of 37km, Mr Baumgartner will take a bunny-style hop from a pressurized capsule into a near-vacuum where there is barely any oxygen to begin what is expected to be the fastest, farthest free fall from the highest-ever manned balloon.

Cancelled: Skydiver`s 1,000kph supersonic 37km stratosphere jump

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