Austrian's edge-of-space jump aborted due to winds
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In this photo provided by Red Bull Stratos, pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria leaves his capsule after his mission was aborted due to high winds during the final manned flight of Red Bull Stratos in Roswell, N.M., Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012. -- PHOTO: AP
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Strong winds forced Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner to abort his attempt on Tuesday at a record-breaking leap to Earth from the edge of space.
A new bid could be made later this week, a spokeswoman said, but everything depends on the weather, and the mission has only one spare balloon, after the first one was rendered unusable by the canceled launch.
The five-minute countdown had begun ticking down as the veteran sky diver prepared to hurl himself from a pressurised capsule 37,000m above sea level in the US state of New Mexico.
But as the clock reached zero, it became clear that conditions were too gusty to go ahead with the attempt.
