Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner fell to Earth from 24 miles up Sunday, enrapturingmillions of people following a live feed of his stunt as he became the first human being to travel faster than the speed of sound without the assistance of a craft.
live feed：现场直播=live video feed
During a four-minute, 20-second free fall, he reached a speed of Mach 1.24 or 833.9 miles per hour, according to an official with the National Aeronautic Association.
National Aeronautic Association：国家航空协会
The data on Baumgartner’s jump is preliminaryuntil verified by international authorities, including those in Austria, Baumgartner’s home country.
He stands to have broken three records: the highest jump from a platform, the longest free fall without a drogue parachute and the highest vertical velocity.
drogue parachute：制动伞，阻力伞
“These are mind-blowing numbers,” Baumgartner said at a news conference later. “When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble, you do not think about breaking records anymore, you do not think about gaining scientific data. The only thing you want is you want to come back alive.”
This time, however, Kittinger’s feet were firmly planted on Earth, while he served as “Capcom,” or capsule communication, during Baumgartner’s mission. He was the only person with direct contact with Baumgartner during his flight and eventual descent.
The entire undertaking from liftoffto the moment when Baumgartner set foot on land lasted close to three hours, with the ascent taking up the bulk of the time.
set foot on land：着陆
take up：占据
the bulk of the time：大部分时间
Cameras inside and outside of the capsulecaptured Baumgartner’s rise by a 550-foot tall helium balloon. The balloon rose first quickly and then more slowly as the atmosphere became thinner and the heliuminside continued to expand. The ascent culminated in the nail-biting moment when he eventually squeezed out of the capsule’s open door and, after delivering brief remarks, lightly hopped into the stratosphere’sextraordinarily thin air, 128,100 feet above sea level.
nail-biting moment：紧张的时刻
Baumgartner’s speech just before leaving the capsule was difficult to make out over the audio feed. During the news conference later, Baumgartner recited it again: “I said, I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see. And sometimes you have to go really high to see how small you are.”
make out：辨认出
On the ground, Baumgartner’s family, including his mother, Ava Baumgartner, watched. Online, the mission team’s Web site gave followers an opportunity to watch closely as the various metrics, including altitudeand cabin pressure, gradually changed.
Screams of joy went up from mission control the second Baumgartner’s feet touched the ground.
An attempt to complete the mission Tuesday was aborted at the last minute because of high winds. Anything less than ideal weather conditions could have torn the balloon, producing potentially fatal results, particularly if the capsule were below 4,000 feet.
be aborted at：中止
One of the goals of the mission was to produce data that would aid in the development of the next generation of space suits, as well as expand scientific knowledge of the effects of high altitude and supersonicspeeds on the human body.
“Usually when a doctor shows up to a press conference, we’re having a bad day,” said mission medical director Jonathan Clark. The data from Baumgartner’s jump has yet to be fully analyzed, but Clark said the data collected “is going to break incredible new ground.”
break new ground：开创新局面
Asked how he felt about his own records in the wake of Baumgartner’s achievement, Kittinger said, “Well, records were meant to be broken,” going on to say that “better champions cannot be found than Felix Baumgartner.”
Baumgartner, clearly proud of what he and his team had achieved, said that he looked forward to being in Kittinger’s shoes in the future and guiding another aspiring supersonic traveler to achieve the dream of falling from the edge of space.
（责任编辑:admin）
