Boards of Canada

The first part of this videoclip shows the jump of Captain Joseph KITTINGER.

"This was the third and last jump of the program. At 5:29 on 16 August 1960 Kittinger lifted off from an old abandoned airstrip just north of Tularosa, New Mexico, and east of Highway 70. During the ascent, the pilot began experiencing severe pain in his right hand caused by a failure in his pressure glove. Apparently the glove failed due to a crack in the oxygen line. This would have been enough to abort the mission, but Kittinger did not initially report the problem because he did not want to terminate the test.

After several manouvers to reduce the ascent rate avoiding damage of the balloon, the craft reached an altitude of 102,800 feet, thus having 99.2 percent of the atmosphere beneath him. Only then -just prior to stepping out of the gondola- Kittinger reported the glove damage.

After a long inspiration and after saying "Lord, take care on me..." the pilot jumped. Once again, the Beaupre multistage parachute functioned perfectly. After falling for 13 seconds, his six-foot (1.8-meter) canopy parachute opened and stabilized his fall, preventing the flat spin that could have killed him. Only four minutes and 36 seconds more were needed to bring him down to about 17,500 feet (5,334 meters) where his regular 28-foot (8.5-meter) parachute opened, allowing him to float the rest of the way to Earth." (source>
http://stratocat.com.ar/fichas-e/1960/HMN-19600816.htm

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