The First Bad-ass in Space

Space travel today is generally a much safer endeavour than it was in the sixties. Some people feel that Space agencies such as NASA are too cautious; that Space should be an explorative, risk-taking endeavour. Each mission is strictly controlled and monitored, and must have a tangible, practical objective, like delivering goods to the space station, or repairing satellites.

But it hasn’t always been this way. Once upon a time Astronauts would go up to space and pull some frankly outrageous, cowboy-esque stunts. I’d like to tell you a story about what I think is the craziest thing an Astronaut has ever done.

Kirk, Sulu and Lieutenant Laser-Fodder

Remember that scene in the Star Trek 2009 movie, where Krik, Sulu, and Red-shirt do a ‘space-jump’ from a shuttle and freefall to the planet, parachuting to safety? Well one brave Astronaut pretty much did that over 40 years ago! I’d like to tell you his story.

Let’s go back in time to 1959. America hadn’t quite reached Orbit yet, but had taken its first steps in leaving the planet. Using a specialised high-altitude balloon technology America was conducing experiments into near-space survival and operations.

View from a high-alt balloon

Now these balloons are not to be scoffed at.  They reach altitudes of up to 35km above the planet.  That’s a tenth of the way to the International Space Station. Now while the official border between Earth and “Space” is at 100km, for all intents and purposes you have left the discernable atmosphere (and therefore planet) at about 25km. At 35km, you’ll get a view like the one you see here.

Enter “Project Excelsior”. The USA commissioned a series of extremely high altitude manned flights. They wanted to know if humans could survive in the cosmic rays and near vacuum conditions at these distances from the ground. 

First bad-ass in space

Now, meet Joe Kittinger. Joe was a daring and accomplished air force pilot, and a pioneering early Astronaut. Although he never made it to Orbit, Joe did leave the planet multiple times, and spent many hours in a space-suit.

The day was August 16^th, 1960. Joe was set to make his third flight of the Excelsior Project, this time up to a height of more than 100,000 feet (over 30km). At that height, everything would have been eerily quiet; he would have had nothing but the sound of his own breath and the radio comms for company
.

Then, he did something insane. He jumped.

Joe was equipped with a parachute, and was used to making high altitude leaps. But this was way higher than anything he, or indeed anyone else in history had ever made. Joe fell for four minutes, but due to the lack of an atmosphere he didn’t feel like he was accelerating. But he was. He was accelerating at a rate of 9.8m/s^2, up to a maximum speed of nearly 1,000 km per hour. He was such a bad-ass, though, that he grabbed his camera before he jumped, and filmed the whole thing!

Joe became the only human in history to break the speed of sound – without being in a vehicle of any kind!

During the fall, his glove on his Spacesuit malfunctioned, and his hand swelled up to twice its normal size. But this man held his nerve, and landed safely. Safe to say that this man was a bad-ass, pioneering the field of bad-assary.

Joe was used to danger and excitement. As a teenager, he was a proficient speedboat racer. He joined the Air Force, and was shot down over Vietnam. He survived, and spent 11 months in a North Vietnamese prison. So this was just another day at the office for Joe Kittinger.

Maybe Joe was a risk-taker. Maybe NASA was a risk taker. Either way, back then the space program captured the imagination of people, taking risks and breaking records. Maybe we need that again. All I’m saying is that I’d sure love to go abseiling on the moon.

Joe Kittinger, we salute you!