Joe Kittinger

[snarky]

This is completely of the wall, but I just heard of this yesterday and had never known about it before. Just posting it for anyone else who might not have heard of it.

In 1960, Joe Kittinger ascended into the upper atmosphere, literally to the edge of space, in a helium balloon with an open gondola. At 102,800 he jumped and fell back to earth. There is an image of his jump here:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... r-jump.jpg (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Kittinger-jump.jpg)

Kinda puts 'xtreme skatboarding' into perspective.

[stlrz d]

Unreal. Had never heard of this before.

Did a youtube search...and sure enough....

[youtube:98ceff8g]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MQ7N6V-YKJ8&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MQ7N6V-YKJ8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/youtube:98ceff8g]

[eniparadoxgma]

Holy crap! That's just awesome. Thanks for the post .

[Iron Shiek]

Wow...the speed of sound....insane....!

[RuthlessBurgher]

Mountain Dew began selling between 1955 and 1960. Kittinger's jump took place in 1960. Coincidence? Or something more...? :mrgreen: