I was a young kid in Alamogordo when this happened. His daughter sat
next to me in class. She was very upset for a couple of days after this
happened when she realized just how dangerous it had been.



As I remember at the time, the "story" that was released to the press
was that his water container had malfunctioned in the gondola and he had
to bail out because of impending dehydration. Of course, we later found
out that the jump had been planned to test high altitude reentry.



This was a great time in the space race... And a magical time for a
young kid... Imagine, on any given day you might here sonic booms and
look up to see "chase fighters" going supersonic chasing after the
contrails of missiles fired from the White Sands Missile range.



Still gives me goose bumps thinking about it.



Larry Goddard

"zero one"

USA




"Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote in message
:

I caught this photo on the Soaring Wikipedia. As it happened, I knew then
Capt. Kittinger during these tests. I thought him to be a very friendly and
enthusiastic aviator though seemingly determined to 'push the envelope'
whenever he had the chance. He was a real "Jet Jocky" and a small boy's
hero.

You will notice, if you look carefully, that his right glove has detached
from his pressure suit exposing bare skin to virtual space conditions at
102,000 feet. The only result was a swollen hand that was painful for a few
days.

It is not true that the unnamed "Air Force Empolyee" given credit for the
photo was a lowly GS3 wearing shorts and T-shirt while riding in the open
gondola as a contemporary Mad Magazine suggested. The unmanned camera was
triggered by the lanyard seen in the photo.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kittinger-jump.jpg

Where are today's heros?

Bill Daniels