Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team will have to wait a little longer to leap from the edge of space.
After a successful second test jump from over 96,000 feet last month, Red Bull announced today that Baumgartner’s final jump from 120,000 feet has been pushed back to October. Originally scheduled for this summer, the capsule that carried the famed BASE jumper during his 90-minute ascent suffered damage after landing on some rough terrain.
During his last jump, the Austrian BASE jumper reached speeds of 536.8MPH during his 3 minute and 48 second free fall becoming the second highest jump in history. Come October if all goes according to plan, Baumgartner will attempt to break Joe Kittinger’s world record of 102,000 feet, which the retired Air Force officer and Stratos advisor set in 1960.
According to Red Bull, the “outer shell, framework and other key components” were found to be compromised after ten days of testing but that the inner pressure sphere and other support systems remained intact. Once the capsule is reassembled it will be shipped out to Brooks-City Base in San Antonio, where it will be tested in an altitude chamber that replicates the stratospheric environment in late September.
Baumgartner and co. will attempt to create history in the first two weeks of October when both the weather and wind will be favorable.