奥地利男子3.9万米高空跳伞成功

Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner became the first man to break the sound barrier in a record-shattering, death-defying freefall jump Sunday from the edge of space.

The 43-year-old leapt from a capsule more than 24 miles (39 kilometers) above the Earth, reaching a top speed of 833.9 miles per hour, or 1.24 times the speed of sound, according to organizers.

The veteran skydiver was in freefall for four minutes and 20 seconds before opening his red and white parachute and floating down to the desert in the US state of New Mexico.

Mission control erupted in cheers as Baumgartner sprung from the capsule hoisted aloft by a giant helium-filled balloon to an altitude of 128,097 feet (39,044 meters), even higher than expected.

"I think 20 tons have fallen from my shoulders. I prepared for this for seven years," he told German-language ServusTV in Austria in his first interview after the leap.

Referring to a helmet problem that nearly forced him to abort at the last minute, Baumgartner said: "Even on a day like this when you start so well, then there's a little glitch.

"And you think you'll have to abort -- what if you've prepared everything and it fails on a visor problem. But I finally decided to jump. And it was the right decision."

The Austrian took more than two hours to get up to the jump altitude. Baumgartner had already broken one record before he even leapt: the previous highest altitude for a manned balloon flight was 113,740 feet, set in 1961.

He had been due to jump from 120,000 feet, but the balloon went higher than expected.

奥地利著名极限运动员菲利克斯-鲍姆加特纳上周日在数万米的“太空边缘”挑战极限跳伞成功，创造了以超音速飞行的世界纪录。

据组织者介绍，这位43岁的冒险家从距离地面24英里（3.9万千米）高空的太空舱跳下，最高时速达到833.9英里，也就是音速的1.24倍。

这位资深的跳伞员以自由落体飞行了4分钟20秒，随后打开了红白相间的降落伞，最终降落在了美国新墨西哥州的沙漠里。

鲍姆加特纳从太空舱里走出时，控制中心爆发出一阵欢呼。这个太空舱由一个巨大氦气球经拉升至超过12万英尺（约3.9万米） 太空边缘，比之前预计的要高。

在跳伞成功后首次接受采访时，他告诉奥地利德语电视台Servus，“我如释重负，我已经为此准备了七年。”

在被问及差点因头盔问题取消此次飞行时，他说：“就算像今天这样进展如此顺利，也难免出现小的故障。”

“你觉得将要取消飞行了，尽管你万事俱备，只是帽檐出了问题。但我最终决定完成此次挑战，这是正确的决定。”

鲍姆加特纳花费了两个多小时才升到既定高度。在纵身一跃之前，他已经打破了另一项世界纪录：载人气球飞行的上一次世界纪录是11.374万英尺，创造于1961年。

他本打算在12万英尺的高空跳下，但气球比预计的升空更高。