Record Skydive Attempt Put On The Shelf

Way back in January of this year I wrote about Felix Baumgartner and his attempt to set a new record for the highest skydive in history. Recently, Baumgartner has gotten a lot more attention as he neared the attempt, which would see him take a hot air balloon up to 120,000 feet then jump out and fall back to Earth. At that altitude, he would also break the sound barrier, achieving super sonic speeds on his descent.

Today, Baumgartner's chief sponsor, Red Bull, pulled the plug on the project, at least temporarily, as they fight off a multi-million dollar lawsuit from another person who the company had worked with previously in an attempt to break the same record, which is now over 50 years old.

According to the press release sent out by Red Bull today a "Mr. Hogan" is claiming ownership of certain elements of the attempt, and is suing the company for millions of dollars. In that press release the company says:

"Red Bull has acted appropriately in its prior dealings with Mr. Hogan, and will demonstrate this as the case progresses. Due to the lawsuit, we have decided to stop the project until this case has been resolved."

So, for now the jump is on hold, which has to be an enormous let down for Felix. Hopefully this will get back on track soon. After all, who doesn't want to see a man float to the edge of space, then jump out of his balloon, only to shatter the sound barrier as he hurdles toward the Earth? Sounds great to me!