“We’d never know how high we are,
Until we are called to rise;
And then, if we are true to plan,
Out structures touch the sky-”
-Emily Dickinson
I was on the balcony level and a small display, tucked into one small corner, caught my attention. There was a white capsule big enough for one person there, a gondola once connected to a helium balloon that reached the heavens. I was at the Wright-Patterson AFB near Dayton, OH in the base museum and I was looking at the exhibit that celebrated the efforts of Col. Joseph Kittinger and the crew of Project Excelsior. It was a little known AF mission that extended human limitations and pushed the very boundaries of our sky. In an effort to record the effects of high altitude on the human body, project excelsior’s helium balloons lifted Joe Kittinger to enormous heights, whereupon he jumped from his craft, freefalling and then parachuting back to the earth. These acts of skydiving shattered all skydiving records and remain today, nearly 50 years later, as truly remarkable efforts that are unsurpassed. Kittinger is even considered, by some, to be the first man in space.
Joe Kittinger was a Colonel in the U.S. Air Force. Though his military career began in 1950, he wasn’t involved in high altitude testing until 1957 when, as a part of operation Man High, he set an interim balloon record of 96,760ft, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross medal.
Shortly after the completion of operation Man High, Kittinger was assigned to Project Excelsior, a series of 3 high altitude parachute jumps that challenged his body’s ability to withstand physical forces never experienced by any other man. The purpose of these jumps was to develop systems that could ensure the survival of a pilot in the event of a high altitude ejection from an aircraft. On each of the high altitude jumps Kittinger was outfitted with a pressure suit that weighed twice as much as he did to protect him the ultra thin atmosphere and staggeringly low temperatures. The merciless high altitude environment was fierce enough kill an unprotected man instantly.
Kittinger’s first jump, in 1959, was from 76,400ft above the earth, about 8 miles into the stratosphere.
This first jump wasn’t a successful one. Because of an entanglement with his parachute rigging, Kittinger’s body went into a flat spin, spiraling uncontrollably at 120rpm causing him to lose consciousness. The spin created g-forces 22 times that of gravity at his extremities, thereby unintentionally setting records. If not for an automatic opening of his backup parachute at 10,000ft, he would have certainly fallen to his death.
Despite near tragedy with the first, Kittinger went ahead with another high altitude jump less than a month later at the same height. This time setting a freefall record of 55,000ft before pulling the ripcord for his parachute.
Eight months later, in 1960, Kittinger and the crew of Project Excelsior performed their third and most remarkable test. Excelsior III was to be the final word on high altitude survival. However, while ascending in the gondola, Kittinger discovered a problem with the glove on his right hand. It wasn’t pressurizing due to a small leak. With no pressure on his right hand, it pooled with blood and swelled to twice it’s normal size. Though extremely painful and causing him to temporarily lose use of said hand, he continued on with the mission without notifying his ground crew for fear of the mission being called off. Then, after 1 hour and 31 minutes, Excelsior III reached it’s maximum altitude, far above the reach of clouds, and Kittinger vaulted himself into the darkness of space.
He said he had ‘no sensation of falling’. This was because he was in a place where scarcely any air existed to create a whistling of wind or a rustling of fabric. When he jumped from the gondola, Kittinger thought he was suspended in space. It was only when he turned, freefalling with his back towards earth and watching the gondola rapidly disappear from view, that he realized he was surely falling. He fell at a top speed of 614mph, breaking the sound barrier and he experienced temperatures as low as -94 degrees F.
At nearly 20 miles above the earth, 102,800ft, Col. Joseph Kittinger broke all previous manned balloon records and set skydiving records that remain unbroken today. He kissed the very edge of our atmosphere, he touched space.
The most remarkable thing about it: Kittinger and the crew of Project Excelsior never set out to break any records. After deploying his parachute at 18,000ft and safely returning to earth, Kittinger and the ground crew simply packed up their gear and returned to their offices with the information they had gathered. What they had accomplished was for the sake of research, it was for the sake of bettering aeronautics technology. The members of Project Excelsior had performed astounding tasks without the presence of a limelight, receiving little more than a pat on the back. The members of Project Excelsior had merely done their jobs; they had achieved greatness whilst doing their jobs.
So there you have it. Joseph Kittinger; an all American hero, if you will, who was given an opportunity to do something absurd and made it absolutely conceivable. An AF Colnel who, one day, went to the edge of the known world and came back with a big stupid grin on his face. A man who, upon finding himself in the most lonely of places; jumped.
I will leave you with this, from Jalaluddin Rumi, who says:
“This is love:
To fly toward a secret sky,
To cause a hundred veils to fall each moment.
First, to let go of life.
Finally, to take a step without feet.”
