Skydiver plans supersonic freefall

Felix Baumgartner, an intrepid skydiver from Austria, is aiming to copy Superman – and become the first man to go supersonic.

Baumgartner has jumped from planes, skyscrapers, and even a pitch black cave in Croatia.

In his most spectacular and dangerous jump yet, he floated 21km above the earth in a pressurised capsule before plunging down from the edge of space.

In a few months time, Baumgartner plans to free fall from almost twice as high – 37km.

And NASA engineers plan to follow his attempt in the hope the feat could give them ideas to develop new escape hatches for their astronauts.

Al Jazeera’s Mereana Hond reports.