Pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria leaves his capsule after his mission was aborted due to high winds in Roswell, New Mexico, in this October 9, 2012 handout photo. The Austrian daredevil called off his death-defying skydive from a balloon 23 miles (37 km) over the New Mexico desert on Tuesday because of winds at the launch site.HANDOUT/Reuters
An Austrian daredevil hopes to end a week-long delay on Sunday and skydive from a balloon flying 37 kilometres above the planet, breaking a 52-year-old altitude record - and the sound barrier in the process.
On Saturday, skydiver Felix Baumgartner, 43, and his team were evaluating the weather in Roswell, New Mexico, from where his massive but extremely delicate helium balloon will be launched. High winds scrapped launch attempts throughout this past week.
The 850,000-cubic-metre plastic balloon, which is about one-tenth the thickness of a Ziploc bag, roughly as thin as a dry cleaner bag, can only be launched if winds are roughly 3 kph or less between ground level and an altitude of about 244 metres.
The next launch attempt is targeted for 8:30 a.m. ET on Sunday.
"Felix is ready to saddle up, and we're ready to help him get there," project advisor Joe Kittinger, who holds the current record for a high-altitude parachute jump, wrote on Twitter Saturday.
In 1960, Mr. Kittinger, now a retired U.S. Air Force colonel, jumped from a balloon flying at 102,800 feet (31,333 metres) and fell for 4 minutes and 36 seconds before opening his parachute. Mr. Baumgartner hopes to top that with a jump from 120,000 feet and free fall for 5 minutes and 35 seconds.
There is so little air in the upper reaches of the atmosphere that after about 30 seconds of free fall, Mr. Baumgartner should be moving faster than the speed of sound, which is roughly 1,110 kph at that altitude.
Among the risks Mr. Baumgartner faces is the chance that his supersonic body will trigger shock waves that could collide with the force of an explosion. But Mr. Baumgartner's medical team doesn't believe this situation is very likely because the air in the stratosphere is too thin to convey sound waves.
Mr. Baumgartner would stay supersonic for about a minute before hitting a thicker part of the atmosphere, slowing his fall.
No human has broken the sound barrier during free fall, at least not intentionally. On Jan. 25, 1966, Bill Weaver, a U.S. test pilot aboard an SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, was ejected from his damaged plane at Mach 3.18 – more than three times faster than the speed of sound – and survived.
"It goes to show there are still challenges to overcome and you should never lose sight of trying to achieve them," Mr. Baumgartner said in an interview posted on the project's website .
Energy drink manufacturer Red Bull is sponsoring the skydive. The firm declined to disclose how much the project or its advertising campaign would cost.
Besides breaking several records, including highest-altitude free fall, longest free fall and highest manned balloon flight, Mr. Baumgartner and his team hope the jump will help engineers working on spacesuits for NASA and the budding commercial space tourism industry.
One company, Virgin Galactic, an offshoot of Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, expects to begin passenger suborbital spaceflights in late 2013 or 2014. SpaceShipTwo, the first of Virgin's planned fleet, is currently undergoing testing in Mojave, California, and is expected to make its first foray beyond the atmosphere before the end of the year.
Mr. Baumgartner's ascent into the stratosphere should take 2.5 to three hours. The descent should last just 15 to 20 minutes, more than half of it beneath the relative safety of his parachute's canopy.
When Mr. Baumgartner jumps from a capsule beneath the balloon, the position of his body will be crucial since there is no air in which he can reposition himself. If he falls in a way that puts him into a rapid spin, Mr. Baumgartner could pass out and damage his eyes, brain and cardiovascular system.
Mr. Baumgartner's safety gear includes a custom spacesuit to protect him from the low pressure and the extreme cold.
Temperatures are expected to be as low as about minus 57 degrees Celsius. The near-vacuum puts him at risk of ebullism, a potentially lethal condition in which fluids in the body turn to gas – literally blood boiling. Severe lung damage could occur within minutes.
Red Bull plans to broadcast the entire jump live on its website, but has built in a 20-second delay in the feed in case there is an accident.