First Man In Space!!!

Having scoured Google Video for the past few hours i came across quite an interesting piece of footage, the mans name is Joe Kittinger, who took off in a helium ballon called Excelsior III, rose to a height of 102,800 feet (making him badically the fist man in space) then he JUMPED!

The footage is quite spectacular and awe inspiring, especially when you see the curvature of the earth.

Richard Branson is doing it with SpaceShipOne

Joe Kittinger done it in a balloon!!

I had vertigo while watching this i must admit.

Google Video Link

If i did not embed it correctly then here is the link:
video.google.co.uk...

video.google.co.uk...

mod edit: title edit



[edit on 16-9-2007 by sanctum]

Reading more about the guy, it seems he was not quite in space, but still an amazing height to jump from.

Not quite in space no, but almost! You can barely see an atmosphere from his balloon, very scary stuff indeed!

That said you had better not be scared because there's only one way back home...

The Kármán line (named for Physicist Theodore von Kármán) is regarded by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as the edge of space, and is 100 km (62 miles) above sea level.

The U.S. does not have a definition for the edge of space, but they consider anyone flying above 50 miles to be an "Astronaut" (they are actually given their astronaut wings). This group includes the X-15 rocket plane pilots back in the 1960's who flew above 50 miles.

Spaceshipone reached levels above 100km, and the pilots of those flights (Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie) are considered to have "flown into space" by the FAI standards.

Joe Kittenger's balloon went to about 20 miles -- not quite space by anyones standards -- but nevertheless a great feat (especially since he jumped out of the balloon from that altitude!) By the way, he freefell for almost 5 minutes and his body reached speeds of over 600 mph while he fell! (his terminal velocity was much greater because of the thin atmosphere at altitude.)

Actually, not that close to space. 102,000 feet is about 31 kilometers. "Space" isn't considered to start until 100 kilometers, so he was less than a third of the way there. Still, a very cool jump.

Edit: Soylent Green Is People beat me to it. Guess I need to compose replies quicker.

[edit on 17-9-2007 by nataylor]

An incredible view and achievement but boy it's gotta be chilly up there! Anyone got an idea just how cold?? I know that it gets to the -60C region at airliner height. Brrrrrr

reply to post by fiftyfifty


It would be about -130F according to this:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Damn, It's strange to think that he may only have been 31 km up, the view when he jumps from the balloon and starts his freefall is quite spectacular, it looks like you can see the curved earth, not sure if thats just me or the camera or something.

Brave dude though.

Even if he wasn't in space, he was above the Earth AND its atmosphere(?). Not anyone can do that!

Originally posted by nataylor
reply to post by fiftyfifty

 

It would be about -130F according to this:
www.msnbc.msn.com...

Damn that's cold! You have got to have some balls to do that, I thought jumping off a mountain at 3000ft was scary enough lol

I can't remember if i am correct on this one but aside from having 'balls' to jump from that height, i think it was his job, military of some kind.

reply to post by Smugallo


He was a captain in the Air Force, specifically working at the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories at Wright-Patterson when the jumps took place.

What was the exact purpose of the jump exactly? I doubt it was for fun