...as if Armstrong had leapt, Hanuman like, back from the moon to earth and in the same old fashioned space suit

From what highth fall'n, so much the stronger prov'd 

Milton:  Paradise lost. Part I

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner breaks sound barrier

Austrian Felix Baumgartner has become the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a top speed of 833.9mph (1,342km/h). The 43-year-old jumped out of a balloon 128,100ft (24 miles; 39km) above New Mexico, breaking the record for the highest ever freefall.

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When I first started watching I was thinking, how cool is this but he kept going higher and higher until you could see the curve of the planet, started to get really nervous at that point and think it was nuts, wonderfully wonderfully nuts. Heart in my mouth at each point of the build up... when they changed the pressure in the cabin, then finally opened the door...and he's sitting on the edge of this little tin can...I had the biggest grin and was sure my heart had stopped and thinking just get down in one piece, get your stupid arse back in one piece you crazy beautiful man. And then there was that moment that he just dropped and Milton flashed through my mind...the fall. And then he's tumbling over and over and I thought it had gone all wrong but no, he gets control and you knew then he was alive and fine and you could see him with his legs slightly open zooming to earth like superman and I'm giggling out loud in relief like a schoolboy, I felt like a schoolboy with a sense of wonder. Was it like that when I watched Armstrong take that first step when I was a kid and my Dad took me out back and pointed at the moon....it felt related somehow, like he had just leaped, Hanuman like, back from the moon to earth and in the same old fashioned space suit.

Mission highlights

...and the promotional Hollywood version  from back in July