First person plunge: Baumgartner's exhilarating space leap (VIDEO)

1 Feb, 2014 21:02 / Updated 11 years ago

What is it like to skydive from the edge of space? A brand new and positively breathtaking video shows Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner's record setting jump from a pulse raising point of view perspective.

The new footage, lasting eight minutes and captured by body mounted GoPro cameras, shows exactly what Baumgartner saw when he broke the speed of sound while in free-fall.

The video includes the footage of an uncontrollable spin that the ‘space diver’ experienced after jumping from a balloon about 39km above Earth, sending the viewer into vertigo.

“In that situation, when you spin around, it's like hell and you don't know if you can get out of that spin or not. Of course it was terrifying. I was fighting all the way down because I knew that there must be a moment where I can handle it,” said Baumgartner as cited by the Daily Mail.

Baumgartner made his death-defying jump in October 2012, becoming the first human to break the speed of sound by reaching a total speed of 833.9 mph, or mach 1.24. He also set the records for the highest balloon ascent and highest parachute jump.

The previous record for the highest parachute jump was held by US Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger. The new video includes archive footage of Kittinger’s jump from 31,300 meters back in 1960.