New DH calendar
Article updated: 10/14/2012 10:11 PM

Skydiver lands smoothly after daring 24-mile leap

Buy this photo Buy this photo
next prev 1 of 2
   
Gallery Image

Felix Baumgartner, of Austria, pumps his fist to the crowd after successfully jumping from a space capsule lifted by a helium balloon at a height of just over 128,000 feet above the Earth's surface Sunday in Roswell, N.M. Baumgartner came down safely in the eastern New Mexico desert minutes about nine minutes after jumping from his capsule 128,097 feet, or roughly 24 miles, above Earth.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The capsule, bottom left, and attached helium balloon carrying Felix Baumgartner lifts off as he attempts to break the speed of sound with his own body by jumping from a space capsule lifted by a helium balloon Sunday in Roswell, N.M.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

About this Article

In a giant leap from more than 24 miles up, a daredevil skydiver shattered the sound barrier Sunday while making the highest jump ever — a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert.