Stratos adventurer Baumgartner dies

Baumgartner gained worldwide fame in October 2012 when he became the first human to break the sound barrier in freefall, jumping out of a helium-filled balloon in the stratosphere.

The jump from an altitude of 128,100 feet—which was broadcast live by the Discovery Channel and online—was called “Project Stratos” and sponsored by energy drink maker Red Bull. The ascent to the edge of space was then the highest manned balloon flight and during his freefall, wearing a pressurized suit, Baumgartner reached a top speed of Mach 1.24. A team of 300 engineers, scientists, and specialists supported the mission.

But the jump seemed to go horribly wrong when Baumgartner began to spin uncontrollably during his high-speed plunge.

“It was, of course, a difficult situation,” he told an Austrian newspaper after the jump. “We knew this dangerous spin was coming, we just didn't know how quickly it would come or how long it would last. You can’t train for supersonic flight; you can either do it or not. So, to some extent, I was prepared for it and knew how to stop it.”

He went on to say that his greatest fear during the stunt was not of dying, but rather the fear of failure and not hitting that top speed.

“Safety was the top priority for our project. For me to die during that jump, a lot of things would have had to go wrong at once. No. You don’t die that quickly,” he said.

Baumgartner was born on April 20, 1969, in Salzburg and completed an apprenticeship as a machinist. He learned to skydive at 16, and later joined the Austrian armed forces and learned to be a tank driver. Afterwards, he worked as a professional boxer, Motocross rider, helicopter pilot, and base jumper before taking on his riskiest project, and the one that would propel him to fame as a daredevil adventurer. The Red Bull jump, he said later, was the “highlight of [his] career.”

Baumgartner on July 17 lost control of his powered paraglider and crashed into a hotel pool in Porto Sant’Elpidio, near the Adriatic Sea coast. The accident, which killed him instantly, also injured a woman on the ground. Local media have reported he had been feeling “unwell” and may have suffered a medical emergency during the flight.