The Real First Man In Space - Not an Astronaut

[cjolley]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/13/earlyshow/main1496715.shtml

CBS) Talk about one giant leap for mankind!

Few people know it, but the first man in space wasn't an astronaut. It was test pilot Joe Kittinger.

In 1960, the little-known pioneer was part of an U.S. Air Force project called Excelsior, which was designed to test the effects of space on human beings — and, more important, to determine whether an astronaut could survive an aborted mission, even at 20 miles above the earth.
...

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. Jumpin' Joe K. beat 'em all to it. That jump was from 102,800 feet and many feel that during free fall he went supersonic....without an airplane

Video of jump: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/42263/the_speed_of_sound/

Dr. Mordrid

[Marshmallowman]

An impressive feat, except ballons need atmosphere to rise and I would think the point were you start running out of atomsphere is were spaces is.
However I am not sure what the exact definition, but I would not call it space.

But damn , the nearest you going to get for unpowered ascent and descent and F#$% fast descent at that.

[Dr Mordrid]

Believe me when I say that the ground comes up real fast even in HALO (high altitude, low open) jumps. I've done two of these at >25,000 feet (with tanks etc.) and the free fall went by in a flash. Yeah....just had to get it out of my system

Dr. Mordrid

[Brian Ellis]

If you count the stratosphere as space, the Frères Piccard were the first to go to transtropopausal into space.
Auguste did it on 27 May 1931, to 15,785 m and on 18 August 1932, to 16,200 m, from Germany.

Jean followed on 23 October 1934 and reached an altitude of 17,672 m from close to where Dr M lives, Dearborn, MI. He also developed multicellular balloons that went to >30,000 m, in the late 30s, but I don't think he actually went up in them, although others did.

Of course, they used pressurised nacelles as stratospheric oxygen molecules are few and far between and many of them photolyse into toxic ozone at those altitudes (the so-called "ozone layer" starts at about 12,000 m, depending on irradiation levels). In fact, Auguste even recycled the air.