Skydiver Goes Supersonic in Record-Breaking 'Near-Space Dive'

From an altitude of more than 135,000 feet (41,148 meters), Alan Eustace had a view of the curvature of Earth against the blackness of space.

In a harrowing plunge from the stratosphere, a Google executive broke the world record for the highest-altitude skydive today (Oct. 24).
Alan Eustace, a senior vice president at Google, hit supersonic speeds as he fell from more than 25 miles (40 kilometers) above New Mexico, smashing the altitude record that Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner set two years ago with his famous Red Bull Stratos "space jump." Eustace's epic feat was orchestrated by the Stratospheric Explorer (StratEx) team at the Paragon Space Development Corporation.
Wearing a custom-made pressurized spacesuit, Eustace was lifted into the air this morning by a high-altitude, helium-filled scientific balloon. After a trip that lasted 2 hours and 9 minutes, he cut himself loose at an unprecedented altitude of 135,890 feet (41,419 meters). He reached a speed of 822 mph (1,322 km/h). That sent Eustace through the sound barrier, and he reached Mach 1.23 at his fastest speed. Eustace's body set off a sonic boom that could be heard by the recovery team on the ground, said Grant Anderson, CEO of Paragon. [See more amazing photos of StratEx's near-space dive]