Kittinger Falls 102,000 Feet: Highest Jump Ever

Captain Joseph Kittinger stepped out of a gondola at 102,800 feet above the New Mexico desert on August 16, 1960, and began falling toward Earth at speeds that would reach 614 miles per hour. For four minutes and 36 seconds, he was in freefall through the near-vacuum of the upper stratosphere, his body the fastest-moving human being outside of a spacecraft. The jump, part of the Air Force's Project Excelsior, set three records that held for 52 years. Project Excelsior was designed to test whether pilots could survive emergency bailouts at extreme altitudes, a concern that had grown urgent as jet aircraft and reconnaissance planes pushed higher into the atmosphere. At 102,800 feet, the air pressure was less than two percent of sea level. Kittinger's blood would have boiled without his pressure suit. Temperatures outside the gondola reached minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. The sky above was black, and the curvature of the Earth was clearly visible below. The ascent in the helium balloon took an hour and a half. During the climb, Kittinger's right glove failed to pressurize properly, causing his hand to swell to twice its normal size. He chose not to report the malfunction, knowing that mission control would abort the jump. As he stood on the gondola's platform at the edge of space, he spoke into his recorder: "Lord, take care of me now." Then he stepped off. The freefall set records for the highest parachute jump, the longest freefall, and the fastest speed achieved by a human without a vehicle. His main parachute deployed at 18,000 feet, and he landed safely 13 minutes and 45 seconds after leaving the gondola. The data collected from Excelsior directly informed the design of ejection systems for the SR-71 Blackbird and early space capsules. Kittinger's records stood until Felix Baumgartner's Red Bull Stratos jump in 2012, though Kittinger himself served as Baumgartner's mission advisor, the old pioneer coaching the new one from the ground.