http://www.euronews.com/ The world's first supersonic skydiver, Felix Baumgartner, said he has officially retired from the daredevil business after shattering three world records when he jumped from the edge of space. Dubbed Fearless Felix, the 43-year-old Austrian pushed the boundaries of human endurance and science with his feat over the New Mexico desert this month, reported to have cost some 50 million euros. Euronews reporter Andrea Bolitho spoke to him and asked what he was thinking when he was poised on the edge of his capsule with the earth 39 kilometres below him. He said: "Well, I was focused on the way up because I had a lot of things to do and then I was climbing out of that capsule. For a couple of seconds I had the chance to enjoy that view and it was an incredible view because it's very outstanding, beautiful. But when you're standing outside you cannot stand there for a long time because as soon as I disconnect from my ship system I only have 10 minutes of oxygen for my bailout bottles and when you're standing there you realise really fast that you are in a very hostile environment. That means you have to step off fast." Euronews: "So what happened after you jumped?" Felix Baumgartner: "We knew that I am going to go into a spin because it's just a matter of fact, there's almost no air, you are almost in a vacuum, so I knew I was going to over rotate a couple of times and it was just a question of how fast I was going to be able to stop that spin. And I did, I had to use all my skydiving skills to stop that spin and I did. So I really had to work well, to perform in those four minutes and 20 seconds." Euronews: "This is the spin that I've heard called a death spin, how exactly do you stabalise yourself when you're whizzing round head over heels?" Felix Baumgartner: "The thing is you cannot practice for that spin, you either go for supersonic or you don't. And while your spinning you have about 50 seconds to find out to stop that spin so you have to use your arms and legs and you have to do everyhting gently because you have to remember you are travelling at 830 miles an hour so it's really hard to find out how to stop that spin but I did." Euronews: "Were you aware of when you passed through the sound barrier? What was it like?" Felix Baumgartner: "Actually I didn't know when I was passing the sound barrier because there were no signs. I had been told there was going to be a shockwave going through my suit, I never saw that shockwave. I did not hear the supersonic boom because it happens way behind you so by the time I opened my parachute I did not know if I had broken the speed of sound or not but when I landed I was told by a lot of people that I broke the sounds barrier because they heard the supersonic boom on the ground." Euronews: "At what moment did you allow yourself to think you had made it, that the worst was behind you?" Felix Baumgartner: "At the press conference when Brian Utley (an official observer monitoring the mission) came up with the numbers, that was the first time when I heard that I broke the speed of sound. And that was a good moment - believ me." Euronews: "So up until the moment your feet actually touched down on the earth you were still thinking 'oh my goodness something could go wrong'." Felix Baumgartner: "No, as soon as opened my parachute I knew everything was over, the rest was just another day in the office." Euronews: "You pushed yourself to the limit - physically and mentally - how do you prepare for something like that?" Felix Baumgarter: "Everytime you do a BASE jump, a high profile BASE jump it is difficult so I knew how to deliver if the heat is on plus I have been doing a lot of testing over the last couple of years. We have high altitude skydives, low altitude skydives, inside the suit, pressurised, not pressurised, we have been in a wind tunnel we also did a full dress rehearsal inside a chamber and we were testing the capsule and myself in terms of temperature and altitude. Then we made one flight from 70,000 feet, we made two flights from 90,000 feet so actually on that day when we were doing it for real and going all the way up to 129,000 feet I was totally prepared, mentally and physically." Euronews: "The jump was postponed because of bad weather and then it took about two and half hours to reach the right height - how do you keep your nerves under control?" Find us on: Youtube http://bit.ly/zr3upY Facebook http://www.facebook.com/euronews.fans Twitter http://twitter.com/euronews

• published: 26 Oct 2012
• views: 16390