“There’s no way you can visualize the speed. There’s nothing you can see to see how fast you’re going. You have no depth perception. If you’re in a car driving down the road and you close your eyes, you have no idea what your speed is. It’s the same thing if you’re free-falling from space. There are no signposts. You know you are going very fast, but you don’t feel it. You don’t have a 614-mph wind blowing on you. I could only hear myself breathing in the helmet.”

#OTD in 1960, Enshrinee Joe Kittinger took a leap beyond belief. As part of Project Excelsior, a series of experiments to investigate the effects of high altitude bailouts, Kittinger established that it was possible to put a human into space. 61 years ago, he piloted a gondola to an altitude of 102,800 feet before stepping into the unknown. Joe set two world records…one for the highest balloon ascent and another for the longest parachute freefall.

What did you do today?

#enshrinee #legend #legendary #usaf #parachute #parachutejump #bravery #space