Free fall: could you parachute to Earth from space?
On screen chemistry with Jonathan Hare
What’s really amazing about Joe Kittinger’s space flight (The planets, BBC TV) is not just that it’s footage of the first manned trip into space but that you see him make the trip without a spacecraft. So how did he do it?
In 1960, a year before the Soviet Yuri Gagarin made his historic single orbit around the Earth in a spacecraft, Joe Kittinger’s US air force team was pioneering high altitude helium balloon ascents. As part of Project Excelsior, Kittinger aimed to fly to 31 km (ca 102 000 feet) in a balloon-supported gondola. His only protection from the changes in atmosphere and harsh solar radiation was a basic spacesuit. This suit also controlled his temperature and supplied him with air.
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