Skydiver breaks sound barrier after jumping from 38 kilometres

(Vatican Radio) Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner has become the first person to break the speed of sound without the aid of a vehicle after a spectacular jump from a balloon nearly 38 kilometres above New Mexico. His final speed was estimated to be 1, 3 42.8 kph, well-above the 1,110 kph sound barrier.

"It was way harder than I expected," Baumgartner said after landing. "Sometimes you have to get up really high to know how small you are."

He said before the jump, he was not thinking of record books.

``When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data,'' Baumgartner told reporters. ``The only thing you want is to come back alive.''

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