We were there to gather information we needed. We were there to gather information we needed for the space program and that we needed for high-altitude escape. It was just part of an experiment that I was a lucky member of. When it was time to go, I was ready to go. I was completely engrossed in why I was there, in what we were trying to do. I was there as an engineer, I was there as a test pilot. I had confidence in myself, in my equipment, in my team. I'd been training for a year and a half for it. Kittinger: Well, first of all, I was a project officer. Joseph Kittinger RFE/RL: What was going through your mind at the moment you stepped off the gondola? I was in space as far as the body is concerned. But there's not an awful lot of difference between 5 millimeters and zero when you compare that we have 780 millimeters where we are here on Earth. Of course, in space, there is zero pressure. So, in fact, I was very close to being in space.Īs I pointed out, I only had 5 millimeters of pressure, which is almost a complete vacuum. So, as far as a body is concerned, space starts at 63,000 feet. And the Armstrong Line is defined as the altitude where if you lose pressurization, you die within a few seconds. There's a figure at 63,000 feet (19,200 meters) - that's what they call the Armstrong Line. It's space as far as the body is concerned. Joseph Kittinger: Well, I'll tell you what. Some people say you were the first person in space, for all intents and purposes, not Yury Gagarin. There are differences of opinion about where space actually begins. You can see the curvature of the Earth, the blackness of space. RFE/RL: Colonel Kittinger, when you watch the film of your jump, it looks like you're jumping from space. state of Florida, where he still flies vintage airplanes and pilots hot-air balloons. RFE/RL correspondent Grant Podelco spoke to Kittinger by telephone from his home in the southern U.S. The museum also opened a permanent exhibit of memorabilia from Kittinger's career in its famous Milestones of Flight gallery. The National Air and Space Museum at Washington's Smithsonian Institution has just awarded the aviation pioneer its Lifetime Achievement Award, whose past recipients include Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon, and John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth. Now, at the age of 79, Kittinger, who retired as a colonel, is being recognized anew for his achievements. He also became the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon in 1984. Kittinger went on to fly almost 500 combat missions in Vietnam before being shot down in 1972 and held for 11 months as a prisoner of war. It was the third and final leap in Project Excelsior, whose aim was to test new equipment designed to help pilots, or even astronauts, survive ejections at high altitudes. state of New Mexico.Īlmost 50 years later, Kittinger still holds the world record for the highest-ever parachute jump and the longest free fall - 4 minutes, 36 seconds. And then, believe it or not, he jumped, landing in the desert in the southwestern U.S. Air Force Captain Joseph Kittinger stepped into a tiny gondola attached to a massive, helium-filled balloon and ascended to the edge of space - more than 31 kilometers above the Earth.
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