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ROSWELL, N.M., Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner's 23-mile jump from a balloon above Roswell, N.M., was postponed Tuesday due to high winds. The launch of the balloon had been delayed several times due to strong winds. Baumgartner had entered a capsule he was to ride in -- suspended from the balloon -- just before 11 a.m. MDT, before the mission was aborted for the day, Fox News reported.
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Baumgartner had said prior to the attempt he was nervous about jumping from an altitude of nearly 23 miles, but he said that's a good thing.
"Having been involved in extreme endeavors for so long, I've learned to use my fear to my advantage," Baumgartner, a 43-year-old former military parachutist, said in a statement.
"Fear has become a friend of mine," he said. "It's what prevents me from stepping too far over the line."
Baumgartner, who has been preparing to attempt to break the world record for highest-ever skydive, had been scheduled to lift off in a 55-story helium-filled balloon at 6:57 a.m. MDT. Winds must not exceed 2 mph at liftoff to ensure the balloon -- whose material is 10 times thinner than a plastic sandwich bag -- isn't damaged, officials of the Red Bull Stratos mission said.
The ascent to 120,000 feet, when it eventually occurs, could take as long as 3 hours, officials said. When Baumgartner reaches the right altitude, he will jump from the capsule and plummet to Earth in a harrowing free fall that will make him the first skydiver to break the sound barrier.
If he does, he would also break a record set in 1960 by Joe Kittinger, who jumped from an open gondola 19.5 miles up but came just shy of breaking the sound barrier.
Kittinger -- who is now 84 but was a 32-year-old U.S. Air Force captain at the time -- reached a speed of 614 mph, The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman reported.
Kittinger now serves as a Red Bull Stratos adviser, Space.com said.
The mission was to have been streamed at redbullstratos.com, with a 20-second video delay of the jump in case of a tragic accident.
Baumgartner's jump is not just for thrills, officials said.
Among the mission's advisers is Dr. Jonathan Clark, a former NASA flight surgeon whose wife, astronaut Laurel Clark, died in the 2003 space shuttle Columbia disaster.
Clark is dedicated to improving astronauts' chances of survival in a high-altitude disaster, The Oklahoman said.
"Red Bull Stratos is an opportunity to gather information that could contribute to the development of life-saving measures for astronauts and pilots -- and maybe for the space tourists of tomorrow," Baumgartner said in his statement.
"Proving that a human can break the speed of sound in the stratosphere and return to Earth would be a step toward creating near-space bailout procedures that currently don't exist."
