Joseph Kittinger - First Man In Space
U.S. Air Force Colonel and Navy Seal, Joseph Kittinger is surely one of the most overlooked figures in the early history of space exploration. Born July 27, 1928, Kittinger was a career military officer and Command Pilot and happens to be the first man ever to go into space. On August 16, 1960, a full eight months before the first manned space flight, Colonel Kittinger soared in a gondola, suspended from a balloon to an astonishing altitude of 103,000 feet and into history. The image below was taken as he jumped from his gondola and plummeted to earth. After the historic flight and jump, Kittinger later said "I let my vision run from the barren blackness of the heavens down through the indigo to the gently curving horizon far below. I tried to relax. I glanced up once more and the disc of the sun was sharp and brilliant against the ebony backdrop of deep space. "Even shaded by my helmet’s tinted faceplate, my eyes burnt. Nothing was familiar up there. Nothing seemed real....
