Yesterday, Sunday 14 October at around 8 p.m., Zenith Ambassador Felix Baumgartner, after reaching an altitude of 39,045 metres (128,100 feet) thanks to a giant balloon inflated with helium, achieved a record-breaking leap to the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier in an experimental flight with an airborne rocket propulsion system. With his El Primero Stratos Flyback Striking 10th chronograph, Baumgartner reached a top speed of 1,342.8 km while jumping from the stratosphere. Baumgartner landed safely with his parachute in the New Mexico desert after he jumped out of his space capsule and his free fall to earth lasted a full 04:20 minutes before being slowed by contact with the atmosphere. Baumgartner's jump lasted a total of 09:03 minutes.
The 43-year-old Austrian skydiving expert also set two other world records (the highest speed achieved by a man in free fall, the highest flight achieved by a manned balloon, leaving that for the longest free fall to his mentor, Colonel Joe Kittinger).
