Partnered with Paragon Space Development Corporation, Alan Eustace was testing one of their life support spacesuits.  Eustace, a senior VP at Google, took off from a runway in Roswell, New Mexico in a helium-filled balloon attached directly to his spacesuit, for a two hour accent to the assigned altitude . 

At jump time, Eustace descended over 25 miles to the Earth’s surface in 15 minutes, reaching a top speed of 822 miles an hour, breaking the speed of sound less than two minutes into his free fall. At an altitude of  18,000 feet, His parachute opened, then safely reaching the ground  about 70 miles away from where he launched.

The Previous record-holder is Felix Baumgartner. On October 9, 2012, Baumgartner  set the world record for the highest-altitude jump when he famously plummeted 128,100 feet to Earth.