Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt a record jump on Tuesday, as long as the weather holds up. The attempt is named the Red Bull Stratos project and is sponsored by the company.
The jump will take place in New Mexico in Roswell and will be an attempt for Baumgartner to break the sound barrier at 690 miles per hour. According to ESPN.com, the jump is attemptiong to be the highest and fastest sky dive ever recorded.
To watch the jump LIVE, click HERE. UPDATE: The jump was cancelled due to weather conditions. The next attempt will be on Thursday.
Baumgartner will jump from 115,000 feet. The jump will take place 23 miles above earth from a balloon and should take about five minutes for Baumgartner to reach Earth.
The weather on Tuesday wasn't cooperating with the mission, but the team was hopeful that the jump would still go as planned.
"We need 3 mph or less at 800 feet," said mission meteorologist Don Day to the Associated Press. He put the chance of a launch Tuesday at "50-50."
For the jump to be successful, the weather needs to hold at a certain status, with calm winds and a warm temperature.
"We are going to stick it out for another couple of hours," Day said, adding, "We've got everyone here. We are going to wait and see if we can take advantage of it."
The team said that if the Tuesday date could not be met that the jump will be moved to Thursday.
According to the Associated Press: "if the mission goes, Baumgartner will make a nearly three-hour ascent to 120,000 feet, then 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."
Baumgartner has performed many dangerous stunts throughout his career and began his work as a skydiver after spending time in the Austrian military. During his time there he practiced all types of death-defying moves, including parachute jumping and training to land on small target zones.
Baumgartner started to work with the Red Bull Stratos project in 2010. The team planned to make a 120,000 foot jump from a capsule suspended from a balloon filled with helium, which would make him the first parachutist to break the sound barrier.
There are obviously many risks to the jump, including exposure to lack of oxygen and damage to the safety suit Baumgartner is wearing. There is also a chance Baumgartner could lose control as he falls towards Earth. According to ESPN.com, the suit Baumgartner will wear is custom-made and cost $200,000 to produce.
"With these big moments, you get a kind of sense that the energy changes," Baumgartner said Monday. "It really is just kind of a heightened energy. It keeps you on your toes. It's not nervousness, it's excitement."
Baumgartner is no stranger to risk. In 2007 he jumped off the 91st floor of the then-tallest building in the world in Taiwan and also base-jumped from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.
"I do not care for the term 'daredevil,'" Baumgartner told ESPN the Magazine. "I do not just show up and say, 'Hey, what the hell, let's jump out of a balloon from space today and see what happens!' Every jump I have ever made has been only after endless preparation and surrounding myself with the best people possible. Whatever we have done before pales in comparison to what we are doing here. I have an army of space legends."
Baumgartner will be attempting to break the free-fall record of 19.5 miles from 1960, which was set by former Air Force Capt. Joe Kittinger.
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