1998 News Abstracts
The Huntsville Times, Huntsville, AL, Sat May 16, 1998: p.1 , c. 1-3 -
Look ma, no hands! Joe Kittinger flies above U.S. 72 Friday afternoon near the Moontown Airport in his restored 1929 New Standard biplane. Kittinger will be barnstorming today and Sunday at the Third Annual Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 190 Armed Forces Day old fashioned fly-in. The program begins at 7:30 a.m. each day and runs all day, with free airplane rides for children. The airport is east of Huntsville off U.S. 72.
USA TODAY, Arlington, VA, Tue Aug 18, 1998: Section D, p.1, c. 3-4 -
Through the stratosphere: Joe Kittinger steps out of a balloon gondola at an altitude of 103,000 feet on Aug. 16, 1960. By falling to Earth, Kittinger paved the way for astronauts to walk in space.His free fall from 20 miles put NASA on firm footing
By Tim Friend USA TODAY ORLANDO, Fla. — Joseph Kittinger is the man who fell to Earth. Thirty-eight years ago, on Aug. 16, 1960, he took more than a small step for man. As a 32-year-old Air Force captain and test pilot, he rose to an altitude of 102,800 feet, nearly 20 miles, in a helium balloon. He could see 400 miles in any direction from the open gondola. A little after 7 a.m., he stepped into the open doorway, held his breath and simply fell forward, becoming in essence the first man in space. His mission, among many things, was to determine whether astronauts could work outside in the vacuum of space and whether a human could escape back to Earth with nothing but a pressure suit, a parachute and guts. No one had accomplished such a feat, and the one man who tried after was killed in the attempt. Kittinger had made two jumps from more than 70,000 feet and two trips to the stratosphere in prototypes of the first space capsules. The stratosphere is 9 to 25 miles high and contains the ozone layer. The upper region contains only 3% of the sea-level atmosphere. In 1984, he captured the world's attention when he made the first solo balloon flight across the Atlantic. An account of that journey was published in the February 1985 National Geographic. Kittinger, whose walls are decorated with posters and awards from his many balloon races, says he was rooting for Steve Fossett, who ditched his balloon Sunday in the South Pacific, ending his attempt to circumnavigate the globe. Kittinger's many accomplishments in the stratosphere are coming to light again as three men plan to journey there in a pressurized capsule in December. The crew, called Team RE/MAX, will attempt to reach 130,000 feet and sail on an 80-mph current around the world. The last successful balloon trip by anyone into the stratosphere was made by Kittinger in 1962, when he and astronomer William White spent 18 hours suspended at 87,000 feet. Hollywood also has taken an interest. A nonfiction book in which Kittinger figures prominently, The Pre-Astronauts, written by Craig Ryan and published in 1995 by the Naval Institute Press, has been optioned by Warner Bros. for a movie. The attention promises to recapture one of the least known but most critical eras leading to manned spaceflight and to the development of the escape systems taken for granted in today's high-speed fighter jets.
Highflying: In Orlando, Kittinger stands near his Grumman AG-CAT biplane. The former test pilot vividly recalls his long fall 38 years ago. Kittinger, 69, retired as an Air Force colonel in 1978. Today he barnstorms in a 1929 biplane at air shows around the country with his wife, Sherry, and flies hot-air balloons. He and his wife also have started a skywriting and aerial advertising business in Orlando, the Great American Flying Circus. Last year he was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, and he is among about 40 elite individuals regarded as honorary members of the Explorers Club. "The sky is my office," he says. Colonel Joe, as friends call him now, smiles shyly from his large comfortable chair in the vaulted living room of his home. He is perusing a copy of the December 1960 National Geographic in which he recounted "The Long, Lonely Leap." "When I made that jump 38 years ago, it wasn't done to set a record," he says. "It was done to gather information for the space program and the United States Air Force. We had never exposed a man in a space environment, but we knew one day he would need to get out of his craft and work out there. We also knew that we had to learn how to provide a means of escape from high altitude." He turns to page 868 and reads aloud: "At zero count I step into space. No wind whistles or billows on my clothing. I have absolutely no sensation of the increasing speed with which I fall. I drop facing the clouds. Then I roll over on my back and find an eerie sight. The white balloon contrasts starkly with a sky as black as night, though it is 7:12 in the morning and I am bathed in sunshine." Kittinger fell for four minutes before his main chute opened. In the vacuum of the upper stratosphere, his body accelerated to 714 mph, breaking the sound barrier. The fall lasted 13 minutes, 45 seconds. His only potentially serious injury was to his right hand. The right glove of his pressure suit failed, and his hand was painful and swollen when he landed. From 1957 to 1962, Kittinger made five flights into the stratosphere. He worked on the Manhigh, Excelsior and Stargazer balloon projects. After Stargazer was canceled in 1962 and the space program was well under way, Kittinger flew fighter jets in Vietnam. He was shot down and spent 11 months as a POW. Prophetically, Kittinger among others argued that manned balloons in the stratosphere would provide an inexpensive way to view the stars and other astronomical phenomenon. Stargazer was designed to establish a platform above the atmospheric turbulence that interferes with ground-based astronomy. Today, unmanned flights carry infrared telescopes and instruments to study cosmic rays and particle physics. In The Pre-Astronauts, author Ryan argues that Kittinger and others from those early programs belong in the history books along with the astronauts of the space program. "The stratospheric balloon programs supplied many of the systems and processes that would later be adopted by NASA," he says. Dwight Bawcom, who manages today's unmanned stratospheric balloon program at the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), calls Kittinger a legend. "I'm a little bit in awe of him," Bawcom says. "Kittinger and many others were working out a lot of these balloon issues long before we were even thinking about these things." Most of the work conducted before the manned flights took place at a small Air Force base near Roswell, N.M. Before sending a man up to parachute from high altitude, Kittinger's team dropped dozens of lifelike dummies dressed in pressure suits from high-altitude aircraft over the surrounding desert. Kittinger flashes a grin. This project brought him another type of fame. "We had no idea at the time how this was going to be perceived. But I believe these dummies were the infamous Roswell aliens." On May 21, 1959, one of Kittinger's partners, Capt. Dan Fulgham, was hit in the head by a gondola. "His face and head swelled up into a grotesque blob," Kittinger says. Kittinger and Fulgham were seen by the public entering the hospital. The Air Force's final Roswell report says this incident likely accounts for a widely told story of a "red-haired captain" seen walking an alien "creature" into a hospital. Kittinger quips that, if aliens have visited Earth, they probably didn't go to Roswell unless they were disguised as rubber dummies in flight suits. Kittinger today test-flies restored antique experimental airplanes. His motto of the 1950s hasn't changed: "First, know your abilities and don't overestimate yourself. Second, know the capability of the equipment you are using and don't demand more than it can give you in service and performance. Third, don't become complacent." In Ryan's book, Alan Shepard, the first man to ride a rocket into space, recalls his days as a test pilot with Kittinger. "He will outwork you and out-think you. He just stays with it and stays with it," Shepard said. Kittinger says he would love to return to the stratosphere, but he says he would not fly with Team RE/MAX. "What they are doing is very dangerous and where they are attempting to go is an extremely risky environment," he says. "When we were flying balloons in Manhigh and Excelsior, we had the full support of the Air Force, and all of our equipment was tested and retested. I am very concerned for these guys." Later, at Kittinger's favorite restaurant in Orlando, Straub's Seafood, a young man approaches the table during dinner. He introduces himself as an aerospace engineer who recently took up skydiving, and he asks for an autograph. Soon the man's father joins him, and Kittinger engages both in personable conversation. As Kittinger drives back to his house in a restored classic London cab, several motorists honk and wave. People haven't forgotten Colonel Joe. Neither has the city of Orlando, which dedicated a park in his name next to the downtown airport where Kittinger watched planes take off and land as a kid. Says Colonel Joe: "That airport was my field of dreams. Now maybe it can be one for another child."By Tim Friend, USA TODAY
©COPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. USA TODAY, Arlington, VA, Tue Aug 18, 1998: Section D, p.6, c. 1-5 -Around the world, through the stratosphere
Three balloonists will soar to the edge of space in a pressurized gondola By Tim Friend USA TODAY Twenty-five miles above the surface of Earth, the atmosphere is virtually nonexistent. The sky overhead is black and full of stars. The planet below appears blue and curved along the horizon. This is the edge of space, where three men plan to ascend in late December carried by a helium balloon as tall as the Empire State Building and wider than the Houston Astrodome. Cramped in a pressurized cabin that is more space capsule than gondola, the amateur aeronauts will attempt to become the first to reach 130,000 feet into the upper stratosphere and to circle the world in a balloon. No global balloon flight attempt has succeeded. Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett's journey ended Sunday when he was forced to ditch in the South Pacific after traveling two-thirds of the way around the world. Experts say the new undertaking is nothing short of a private space journey into an unforgiving environment where small mishaps with the vehicle or life-support systems quickly could lead to disaster. But if these men succeed, they will write a new chapter in the history of manned high-altitude ballooning. The stratosphere extends from 9 to 25 miles high and contains the ozone layer. It lies above the troposphere, which provides us with our weather and the jet stream. The space shuttle flies at 250 miles above Earth, but there is little difference in the lack of atmosphere in space and in the upper stratosphere. At up to 25 miles high, the balloonists will travel in a near-vacuum, with only 3% of the atmosphere that exists at sea level. If a person were ex posed to any altitude above 12 miles in an unpressurized environment, the blood would bubble like carbonated water. The crewmen who plan to rise to this challenge call themselves Team RE/MAX after their largest sponsor, real estate giant RE/MAX International. They are Bob Martin, a TV science reporter and pilot from Albuquerque; Dave Liniger, a pilot and co-founder of RE/MAX in Denver; and champion balloonist John Wallington of Canberra, Australia. High above the weather and jet stream, which have plagued all previous balloon attempts to circumnavigate the globe, they intend to catch the stratosphere's predictable 80-mph current and wind their way along the Tropic of Capricorn in 16 to 18 days.... Retired Air Force colonel Joseph Kittinger, who made five manned flights into the stratosphere in the late 1950s and early '60s, worries that no matter how much expertise and computer modeling has been volunteered for building Team RE/MAX's capsule, the safety and redundancy that have been built into the government's spacecraft cannot be matched by a private effort. Bawcom agrees. "There are 75 people I work with here at the balloon facility. We know Bob Martin, and we all have an affinity for him and wish him well," he says. "But there isn't anybody around here that's going to crawl into that capsule with him."... ©COPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.