Extreme Sports: All downhill since 1960
Joseph Kittinger was the first man in space, and the first man to break the sound barrier without a vehicle.
He was an expert at piloting high-altitude ballons. It would take many hours to climb upwards of twenty miles (102,000 ft.–commercial airliners travel at ~32,000 ft.). That high, Kittinger was in low-Earth orbit, enveloped in the blackness of space although it was daytime.
In this footage, you can see the beautiful blue haze cresting over the curvature of the Earth as Kittinger jumps, parachuting to re-entry on the surface after several minutes of free-fall.
