NASA Congratulates Felix for Setting a Record

Finally the five years of intense training for a mission designed to improve the scientific understanding of how the body copes with extreme conditions at the edge of space has yielded an excellent outcome for Austria's Felix Baumgartner who grabbed a place in the history books.

The estimated speed of this venturesome, madcap jump was 1,342.8 km/h from the stratosphere. When certified he will be the first man to break the speed of sound in freefall and set several other records while delivering valuable data for future space exploration.

"It was an incredible up and down today, just like it's been with the whole project," a relieved Baumgartner said. "First we got off with a beautiful launch and then we had a bit of drama with a power supply issue to my visor. The exit was perfect but then I started spinning slowly. I thought I'd just spin a few times and that would be that, but then I started to speed up. It was really brutal at times. I thought for a few seconds that I'd lose consciousness. I didn't feel a sonic boom because I was so busy just trying to stabilize myself. We'll have to wait and see if we really broke the sound barrier. It was really a lot harder than I thought it was going to be."

NASA and its spacecraft manufacturers have asked to be kept informed.

Dr. Jonathan Clark, Baumgartner's medical director was quoted by Ibnlive saying, "he expected the pressurized spacesuit to protect him from the shock waves of breaking the sound barrier. A successful jump could lead NASA to certify a new generation of spacesuits for protecting astronauts and provide an escape option from spacecraft at 120,000 feet (36,000 meters)."

NASA sent out the first tweet NASA: "Congratulations to Felix Baumgartner and RedBull Stratos on record-breaking leap from the edge of space!"

"Part of this programme was to show high-altitude egress, passing through Mach and a successful re-entry back, because our belief scientifically is that's going to benefit future private space programmes or high-altitude pilots; and Felix proved that today," Art Thompson, the team principal was quoted by BBC.

NDTV says, the dive was more than just a stunt. NASA is eager to improve its blueprints for future spacesuits.