UPDATE for 5 p.m ET: (webcast has ended) Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner's has successfully shattered the record for the world's highest skydive today (Oct. 14) by making a nearly 24-mile leap from a balloon over Roswell, N.M. The first attempt on Oct. 9 was aborted due to high winds that made the daring feat too risky.
The project, called Red Bull Stratos, will send Baumgartner freefalling faster than the speed of sound from an altitude of 23 miles (36.6 km) above the ground. By coincindence, today's supersonic skydive coincides with the 65th anniversary of the first-ever supersonic flight by legendary pilot Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 rocket plane.
Baumgartner's made the jump just after 12 p.m. MT (2 p.m. EDT; 1530 GMT).
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Baumgartner is chasing a skydiving record that was first set in 1960 by U.S. Air Force Capt. Joe Kittinger, who rode a balloon-toted capsule to an altitude of 102,800 feet (31,333 meters) and made his historic jump. Kittinger serves as an advisor on Baumgartner's mission.
In addition to the highest skydive and the first supersonic freefall, the skydive would mark the longest-duration freefall and the world's highest balloon flight.
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