WTF : Superman Felix Baumgartner JUMPS from SPACE?

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'Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble.

'It's not about breaking records any more. It's not about getting scientific data. The only thing you want is to come back alive.'

The extreme sportsman has skydived or base-jumped off statues and skyscrapers around the world, but yesterday’s multi-million pound feat - sponsored by energy drink maker Red Bull, who are refusing to reveal how much they contributed to the final cost - was easily the biggest challenge of his career.

Nobody could be quite sure about the physical effects of breaking the sound barrier in freefall, and if Baumgartner’s pressurised spacesuit and helmet had been damaged it could have been catastrophic.

As he ascended, there were fears the mission would once again be cancelled after he reported that the heating device in his visor was not working properly, causing it to mist up.

But after a discussion with his mentor Joe Kittinger - an 84-year-old U.S. Air Force colonel who set the previous freefall record in 1960 when he jumped from 102,800 feet - he decided to go ahead.

As the balloon stopped rising, Baumgartner began conducting his final exit checks. In his bulky suit, he had little room to manoeuvre inside the capsule and had to slide feet first through the hatch.

Gripping the hand rails on either side of the hatch exterior, he hauled himself up on to an outside platform little bigger than a skateboard. After a final salute, he fell forwards in what his team describes as ‘bunny hop’ – pushing out with both feet at the same time to avoid falling into a potentially fatal flatspin.

His team had estimated he would fall at around 700mph in the first 50 seconds, but he managed to travel even faster, reaching 834mph during the first 50 seconds of the four minute 20- second freefall.

The team had also calculated that at about 100,000ft above sea level, Baumgartner would have had to accelerate to about 690mph to break the sound barrier.

The speed of sound varies depending on the temperature and dryness of the air. Where the air is colder, it travels more slowly. But he managed a much higher speed and so was travelling at one and a quarter the speed of sound before he started to slow down as the thicker air closer to Earth created drag on his body.

His success left Col Kittinger with only one record – for the longest time spent in a freefall. But he was clearly as relieved as anyone to see the others broken at last.

‘Couldn’t have done it better myself,’ he joked as Baumgartner glided to the ground.

'Sometimes we have to get really high to see how small we are,' an exuberant Baumgartner told reporters outside mission control, shortly after the jump. 

He added: 'It is hard to describe [breaking the speed of sound] because I didn't feel it. When you're in a dead pressure suit, you don't feel anything.

#SALUTE from Movie Kangz