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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: The First Space Jump

baumgartner-kittinger.jpg

27/12/2012

The First Space Jump

BBC World Service - Outlook, The First Space Jump

Colonel Joe Kittinger, the first man to jump from space

Matthew Bannister meets Colonel Joe Kittinger, the first man to jump from space

In 1960 a young American test pilot,  Colonel Joe Kittinger jumped from the edge of space and fell 19 miles to earth. His record has only just been beaten by Felix Baumgartner.
Colonel Joe was the capsule communicator talking Felix through the whole experience. 

In this edition of Outlook we hear Joe's own extraordinary story. 

The 84- year-old has been an experimental aviator, a Vietnam fighter pilot and a space jumper, and is recognised to have paved the way for the American astronauts of the 1960s.

Picture: Col Joe Kittinger (R) and Felix Baumgartner (L)
Picture Credit: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

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