If the wind blowing across the New Mexico desert drops, a 43-year-old Austrian man will step out of a small silver capsule on Tuesday and attempt to make history. Felix Baumgartner is to jump from the largest helium-filled balloon ever built for manned flight and hurtle towards the Earth from near the edge of space, 23 miles up. He will reach a speed of 690mph, becoming the first man to break the sound barrier in freefall, before deploying his parachute.

If it goes wrong, the project's medical director, Jonathan Clark, says cheerfully, Baumgartner's skin will boil.

Baumgartner explained in a recent interview that he "loves a challenge". He made his first parachute jump at 16, the earliest Austria would permit it, and joined the army to continue his training. He hates being called an adrenaline junkie, saying: "I like the planning."

Both Baumgartner and Red Bull Stratos, which has spent five years and undisclosed millions preparing the stunt, say the purpose is "to advance scientific discoveries in aerospace for the benefit of mankind". It is also, as one commentator has said, one giant leap for publicity.

Felix Baumgartner's preparations for a record-breaking skydive ITN

With five days to go the attempt was put back by 24 hours due to forecasts of strong winds. A weekend dress rehearsal went well and the forecast looks good for Tuesday. There have been two test jumps, including one in July from just over 90,000ft up.

Images of the team working round the clock from mission control in Roswell look exactly like a Nasa space launch, and the team includes many former Nasa scientists. Also assisting is the formidable current record holder, Joe Kittinger, who in 1960 as a US air force pilot, jumped from a balloon at 102,800ft. Now 81, Kittinger continues to fly planes and balloons, proclaiming "the sky is still my office". At least one man has died trying to break his record, and Kittinger says he gets several phone calls a month from people who want to attempt the challenge.

Baumgartner will go up in a specially designed capsule wearing a spacesuit. As the moment comes to open the door, the pressure in the capsule will be switched off, and the spacesuit's own system will take over – a moment, the Austrian has said, "when you can feel your body just does not want to be there".

Kittinger greeted him with a hug after the July test, but clearly thinks this is freefall for softies: "I went up in an open gondola, and Felix is going up in a very sophisticated space capsule … He's going up in luxury, he's going up in a Cadillac by comparison with what we did 51 years ago."

Baumgartner has already racked up a string of records, including in 1999 jumping from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, then the tallest buildings in the world. He also has the record for the lowest-altitude jump, from the left hand of the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro in 2001. In 2003 he became the first to skydive across the English Channel, using a carbon fibre wing, and he has jumped from a cliff into the stygian depths of a cave in Croatia.

"I am that type of person who wants to enjoy life," Baugartner said. His mother did get a bit anxious about it all, he admitted. She will be at Roswell to watch the attempt. "She says 'If something goes wrong, at least I can hold you in my hands one more time' … I really don't want to put my mom in that spot, and that means I really have to stay alive."