David Blaine stuck the landing.

The magician floated up into the skyabovePage, Arizona, rising more than 20,000 feet with the help of a couple dozen weather balloons on Wednesday morning.

Then he released the balloons and wentcatapulting back to Earth, having put on his parachute pack on the ride up. Blaine had traveled too far off-course to make it back to the planned landing zone, but despite his apparent nerves he was able to spot a safe place to land.

Hundreds of thousands of people watched Blaine's "Ascension" stunt, which spanned about an hour, live on YouTube.

You can watch Blaine's journey here:

The helium-balloon rig, which had to be classified as an experimental aircraft by the FAA, hadan airworthiness certificate and was approvedto take flight, the FAA confirmed toThe Arizona Republic on Tuesday.

In a statement to TheRepublic on Monday, the agencysaid,"The FAA is working closely with David Blaine and his team to ensure that the proposed flight meets all regulatory requirements. ... The FAA will closely monitor the flight and will provide air traffic services as needed."

MORE: Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon keep people coming to Page, Arizona

"Ascension" was years in the making.Blaine'sgoal wasto reach 18,000 feet above the ground, Variety reported, and hehadto put on his parachute pack in midair.

"If there's a catastrophic balloon failure partway up, David comes crashing down to Earth," a narrator saidin a promotional YouTube video for the event.

"This groundbreaking (research and discovery) flight will be done for the first time right here in Arizona, which is the most beautiful backdrop that I've ever seen in my life," Blainesaidin an Instagram video."I want tograb a bunch of balloons and go floating all the way up into the sky until I almost disappear."

Blaine had to obtain a hot air balloon pilot certificate and a skydiving license on top of learning how to read the wind, he said in a video.

The original plan was to soar across the Hudson River from New Jersey to New York City, but due to its complexity, Blaine announced last weekend that he was moving it to Arizona.

Blaine could haveexperienced oxygen deprivation or hypoxia and hypothermia. There wasalso a chance he could have goneplummetingback to Earth if he didn'tget his parachute on in time.

There was also that potential for "catastrophic balloon failure."

Blaine is known for stunts such as "Buried Alive" in 1999, in which he was sealed in a plastic box beneath a 3-ton water tank for seven days, and "Frozen in Time" in 2000, in which he was encased in a block of ice for more than two days in Times Square.

"Ascension"washis first major live stunt since "Electrified: One Million Volts Always On" in 2012.

The helium balloon flight isn't the only reason Blaine has been in the news in recent years. In 2019, The Daily Beast,New York Times and other media published reports that the New York Police Department was investigating Blaine over two accusations of sexual assault. He denied the allegations and said he would cooperate with law enforcement.

Reach the reporter at kimi.robinson@gannett.com or at 602-444-4968. Follow her on Twitter @kimirobinand Instagram @ReporterKiMi.

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David Blaine's balloon flight over Page, Arizona, goes off without a hitch. Watch here - The Arizona Republic