In a giant leap from more than 24 miles up, a daredevil skydiver shattered the sound barrier while making the highest jump ever - a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert.
Austrian Felix Baumgartner hit Mach , or 833.9 mph (1,342 kph) on Sunday 14 October , according to preliminary data, and became the first man to reach supersonic speed without travelling in a jet or a spacecraft after hopping out of a capsule that had reached an altitude of 128,