It has been planned a while, and Tuesday’s Felix Baumgartner really will do it. He is going to perform the highest skydive ever. Fifteen minutes fall from 36.5 km altitude, with a top speed of over 1,110 km per hour.

Baumgartner will reach those crazy speeds in the upper part of his free fall, where the air is thinner and the air resistance thus the smallest. He will even go faster than sound. He will be expected to reach its top speed after falling for thirty seconds.

The Austrian is in a hot air balloon towards the end of the atmosphere. He will jump from a special capsule. The jump was already moved this weekend to tomorrow to Tuesday because of the weather: a cold front with winds is coming on Monday. And it is all very very strict. The smallest mistake can literally be fatal, the blood of Baumgatner can boil his head and may even explode.

The jump is a bit of a challenge. Not least, of course, because it has never been done before. If Baumgartner survives Tuesday, he is at once the world record holder at four different points: the highest parachute jump, the longest freefall, the first man in free fall reaches the speed of sound and the highest balloon flight ever.

Test Jump in March from 21 kilometers altitude:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-TCO2IdoTA

Test Jump in July from 29 kilometers altitude:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_SzUnkYcR4