Video Related To: Felix Baumgartner's death-defying skydiving attempt

Skydiver Felix Baumgartner's attempt at the highest, fastest free fall in history Tuesday is more than just a stunt. His planned 23-mile dive from the stratosphere should provide scientists with valuable information for next-generation spacesuits and techniques that could help astronauts survive accidents. Jumping from more than three times the height of the average cruising altitude for jetliners, Baumgartner hopes to become the first person to break the sound barrier outside of an airplane. His team has calculated that to be 690 mph based on the altitude of his dive. His medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark, a NASA space shuttle crew surgeon who lost his wife, Laurel Clark, in the 2003 Columbia accident, says no one knows what happens to a body when it breaks the sound barrier. "That is really the scientific essence of this mission," said Clark, who is dedicated to improving astronauts' chances of survival in a high-altitude disaster. Clark told reporters Monday he expects Baumgartner's pressurized spacesuit to protect him. If all goes well and he survives the death-defying jump, NASA could certify a new generation of spacesuits for protecting astronauts, and provide an escape option, from spacecraft at 120000 feet. Currently, spacesuits are certified to protect astronauts to 100000 feet, the level reached by Joe Kittinger in 1960 when he set the current free-fall record by jumping from an open gondola 19.5 miles high. Kittinger's speed of 614 mph was just shy of <b>...</b>