What do you think his chances of surviving the whole thing are?
Sorry if this sounds morbid. but it seems a tremendously risky thing to do; the first planes to pass through the sound barrier just broke up and many pilots were lost.
On another note does anyone know why the balloon is so thin?
If they made it a bit more robust it could have flown today?
So what's happening?
Nothing on the news over here, that I've heard...
Related info...
Skydiver Baumgartner in 128,000ft plunge from brink of space
"If the heroic Baumgartner did go supersonic he will not be the first to do so, nor the record holder for fastest human body travelling through the air. That title is held by Bill Weaver, the pilot of an SR-71 "Blackbird" ramjet spy plane, whose aircraft disintegrated in midflight in 1966 while travelling at better than Mach 3. Weaver, though he did black out, survived, despite the fact that his ejection seat reportedly never left the plane: and he will probably remain the holder of this particular exotic record for some time to come. Sadly his systems-operator companion Jim Zwayer died during the crackup."
That's why baumgartner is the first person to go supersonic unaided not the first person to go supersonic ever