Now THIS is Skydiving!

By Chris

On this day in 1960, United States Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger walked to the doorway of a balloon-suspended gondola 102,800 feet above the surface of the Earth and jumped out. On the way down, Captain Kittinger fell through temperatures of -94 degrees and reached a free-fall speed of 614 miles per hour before opening his main parachute at 17,500 ft and landing in the New Mexico desert, 13 minutes and 45 seconds after the ordeal began.

The world records that Captain Kittinger set (highest parachute jump, the longest parachute fall and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere) still stand today, but the Captain was not in it for a place in the record books. There was a method to this madness. As the Cold War heated up, the United States developed planes that could fly higher and faster than ever before. But while the planes could handle dizzying altitudes, the question arose: Were the humans at the controls up for the task? The Air Force decided to send men to the upper layers of the atmosphere to find out.

The USAF’s Project Manhigh started in December, 1955 to gather data on human physiology, aerodynamics, and cosmic radiation. One of the three men selected for the project was Captain Kittinger, who ascended to a then-record height of 96,784 ft in a balloon-lifted gondola in 1957. For his work, Kittinger was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

In 1958, Project Excelsior was founded to design a parachute system that could save the lives of pilots who had to eject at high altitudes. Due to his success in Project Manhigh, Captain Kittinger was selected as test director and made three jumps testing a multi-stage parachute system. It was during his third jump on August 16, 1960, that he set the records that stand to this day, although the jump did not go exactly as planned. The pressurization in his suit malfunctioned exposing his hand to the elements. Rather than abort the mission, with his hand swelling to twice its normal size and stinging from frostbite, Kittinger kept his discomfort from the mission team, and succeeded in his record-breaking attempt.

It might be hard to imagine a man in a tiny gondola almost 20 miles above the Earth taking the terrifying step into freefall. Luckily Kittinger’s historic free-fall was captured on video!

After his important contributions to high altitude flight research, Kittinger continued to serve his country with three tours in Vietnam, flying 483 missions before being shot down in 1972. He spent 11 months as a prisoner of war in the infamous Hanoi Hilton before being returned in March of 1973. Even after his retirement from the Air Force in 1978, Kittinger couldn’t stay away from balloons, setting a gas balloon world distance record in 1983, and completing the first solo Atlantic balloon crossing in 1984.

Records were meant to be broken, but would someone really try to top Project Excelsior 50 years on? Yes! Later this year, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner will attempt a jump from 120,000 feet in the Red Bull Stratos project. If all goes as planned, Mr. Baumgartner will become the first person to break the sound barrier. A world-class team of scientists and specialists will aid Felix in his attempt. And on launch day, who will be Mr. Baumgartner’s primary point of contact at Mission Control?  82 year old Joseph Kittinger!

Keep up to date with the latest news on the attempt at the Red Bull Stratos Newsroom