Somehow never heard of this before..

48 years ago, in 1960, AF Captain parachutes 102,800 feet from a balloon. Three times higher than a jet airliner. First man to reach speed of sound without an aircraft. Arguably first man in space.

YouTube - Boards of Canada - Dayvan Cowboy (High Quality)

The Speed of Sound Video - Metacafe

An astronaut is a person who is over 80 km above the Earth,.
Principally outer space would be a place where there is a low density of anything, the stratosphere doesn't really fit that definition.

Still pretty cool.

I don't feel there is anything to be ashamed of by admitting Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space considering that he was obviously Aryan.

Somehow never heard of this before..

48 years ago, in 1960, AF Captain parachutes 102,800 feet from a balloon. Three times higher than a jet airliner. First man to reach speed of sound without an aircraft. Arguably first man in space.Interesting. I'd never heard of this either. But, I doubt it qualifies him as the first man in space. Aviation weekly says the U-2 spy plane could exceed 100,000 feet before 1960. And, I believe "space" begins at 62 miles (over 300,000 feet) above the earth.

Still, damn impressive. I'd like to see an interview with this guy. How did someone convince him that he could go 20 miles high in a balloon, jump out, break the sound barrier while falling, and still land safely with just a parachute?

EDIT - Why is this in Nutzpah, rather than Science and Technology?

Very interesting trick photography. Please note that there are no stars in the black void known as space, and very little atmosphere to prevent stars from being captured.

The entire space program is bullshit - you've been had.

What happenes when an accelerating object decelerates, especially when it is the result of an increase in the amount of friction, i.e. a thicker atmosphere?

Hint - Heat.

The entire space program is bullshit - you've been had.

since we are in nutzpah, do you believe the moon landings were fake? along with most the other shit taxer payers are giving money for?

since we are in nutzpah, do you believe the moon landings were fake? along with most the other shit taxer payers are giving money for?

I am mostly curious how they avoided all the radiation. I haven't ever heard an explanation for that.

I am mostly curious how they avoided all the radiation. I haven't ever heard an explanation for that.


Van Allen radiation belt is that what you mean? I always wondered that too I have never got a good answer either. Granted I never paid attention to those employed by the gov

An astronaut is a person who is over 80 km above the Earth,.
Principally outer space would be a place where there is a low density of anything, the stratosphere doesn't really fit that definition.

Still pretty cool.

I don't feel there is anything to be ashamed of by admitting Yuri Gagarin as the first man in space considering that he was obviously Aryan.

I think our best German rocket scientists were the one's used by The Soviets
after the war. Just thought it worth mentionning.

Whoever came up with the word "astronaut" must have been a lunatic.
The Russian word "Kosmonaut" is far more appropriate for space travel.
The "astronauts" (aster=star) are just pretenders who might not even have made it to the moon :D

I think our best German rocket scientists were the one's used by The Soviets
after the war. Just thought it worth mentionning.


I watched/read some stuff on this recently and its Germany have a lot to contribute however the rocket industry was quite progressive in the USSR and there were quite a few experiments as well. I should remind you that the first battle-worthy rocket jet flew in Russia May 1942, not in Germany. If the Russians didn't get how rockets work they wouldn't have been so quick to launch them into space, obviously there was a lot of experience with them already.


Whoever came up with the word "astronaut" must have been a lunatic.
The Russian word "Kosmonaut" is far more appropriate for space travel.
The "astronauts" (aster=star) are just pretenders who might not even have made it to the moon :D
Kosmos is an ancestral word for most Indo-Europeans, it is a much better word. I however was using the NASA definition of space (Which is more or less reasonable) so I used astronaut since that's more of a national word than a definition. Astronaut in the Kwa kwa kwa and Cosmonaut in the east (Or west depending on your frame of reference)

I watched/read some stuff on this recently and its Germany have a lot to contribute however the rocket industry was quite progressive in the USSR and there were quite a few experiments as well. I should remind you that the first battle-worthy rocket jet flew in Russia May 1942, not in Germany. If the Russians didn't get how rockets work they wouldn't have been so quick to launch them into space, obviously there was a lot of experience with them already.


I didn't mean to imply that Russian scientists don't deserve a lot of respect for their great work.;)

since we are in nutzpah, do you believe the moon landings were fake? along with most the other shit taxer payers are giving money for?


I'll deny that the United States landed man on the moon in any forum, nutzpah, just in, general, you name it.

Ralph Renee's work is all that is necessary for any relatively intelligent person to conclude that the very idea the US landed man on the moon is a joke. For anyone still toying with the idea that we did, I strongly encourage you to read "Nasa mooned America." You'll NEVER look at the "moon landings" in the same way, and chances are, you'll never look at anything in the same way, you will have concluded that there is literally nothing that they won't lie to you about.