Sky’s the limit for Austrian who jumped from 29km above Earth’s surface

Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgarter has successfully jumped from around 29 kilometres above the Earth’s surface.

It was the third time’s the charm for the 43-year-old daredevil, after bad weather scuppered his two previous attempts.

It is hoped that one day astronauts could safely re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere without a spaceship in case of emergency – and Baumgarter’s jump is helping the research.

Wearing a newly-designed fully pressurized suit, he plunged through the air for almost four minutes before deploying his parachute.

“Well, that feels great. It’s always been my dream, but it’s so hard to accomplish today because it was hot inside.

“It was rough the last couple of days because we had no success, and all these launches, because the weather was bad all the time, so almost no sleep. It was really, really tough to do it today,” Baumgarter said after the jump.

Next stop for the Austrian is trying to break the world record of nearly 31.5 kilometres set by Joseph Kittinger in 1960, with the US record holder as his mentor.

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