*Note: Tuesday's launch was aborted because of wind. A new launch date has not yet been announced
Why? In the name of science and pushing the limits of human endurance, of course.
Those interested in watching can do so via the video embedded in this post. It'll show the dawn launch from Roswell, New Mexico, as well as the jump and the post-jump news conference.
That's assuming nothing goes drastically wrong. Just getting the pressurized space capsule to 120,000 feet, via stratospheric balloon, is dangerous.
Among the risks from the jump itself are boiling blood, violent spinning and the effect of the sonic boom--if Baumgartner reaches his planned top speed of 690 mph, or Mach 1.2, during a free-fall that could last more than five minutes.
"I'll probably feel the most anxious when I'm trying to sleep in the hours before I start getting ready -- when everything's quiet and it's just me and my thoughts," said the 43-year-old Austrian daredevil, who will wear a pressurized space suit during the jump.
The leap will mark the culmination of the Red Bull Stratos project, which has been seven years in the planning and has included practice jumps from 71,580 and 97,146 feet (in March and July, respectively).
If this jump goes as well as those jumps, Baumgartner will break a skydiving altitude record that has stood since 1960, when Joseph Kittinger, a former U.S. Air Force colonel, jumped from a gondola beneath a helium balloon from 102,800 feet.
Kittinger is now in charge of flight operations and safety for the Red Bull project.
Here's hoping that all the hard work that went into this project delivers a joyous ending.
--Image of Felix Baumgartner in pressurized space suit is courtesy of Red Bull
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