(Joe Kittinger)
I like balloons they are light & shiny & floaty-especially when filled with helium as you know. Also, if a balloon is big enough- let’s say, the size of my grandad’s Y-fronts, it can carry you up up & away- With a bit of preparation, sometimes as far as the very boundaries of our earth’s atmosphere. Joe Kittinger IS Balloon Boy. Before the days of NASA, in the nineteen fifties & early sixties- the US airforce were carrying out not so much rocket launches, as manned expeditions to the edges of space using the rather more ‘down to earth’ mode of transport that is the hot air balloon. These balloon launches were known as the “Manhigh” projects. Joe was the lonely soul that sat in the glorified soup tin each time, armed only with his courage, a pair of aluminium socks & the knowledge that if he inhaled all the helium from his craft-he’d have the best voice ever which is always nice. These various ascensions at different altitudes, culminated on the 16th August 1960, when Joe was lifted by his balloon “Excelsior III” to an altitude of 102,800 ft!
Joe probably shouldn’t have done it-he lost pressure in his right glove, causing extreme pain from the blood pooling in his hand. But he didn’t feel that was enough to cancel the mission, so he went ahead. Excelsior III kept climbing until it reached 102,800 ft-the highest altitude yet reached by a manned balloon. But Joe wasn’t finished.
Outside, the temperature was -100 deg.F. Joe Kittinger stood on the edge of the gondola,my grandad’s Y-Fronts suspended above him like a huge silent question mark. Looking down at the New Mexico desert 20 miles below, he said “Hey! I can see my house from here!” followed by “Lord, take care of me now….” and then he jumped .