Skydive from space

I heard about this from a friend a long while ago but have only just gotten around to looking into it. I was amazed!

On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger jumped from the projects Excelsior balloon, doing so from an air-thin height of 102,800 feet (31,334 meters). From that nearly 20 miles altitude, his tumble toward terra firma took some 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Exceeding the speed of sound during the fall, Kittinger used a small stabilizing chute before a larger, main parachute opened in the denser atmosphere. He safely touched down in barren New Mexico desert, 13 minutes 45 seconds after he vaulted into the void.



His jump set records that still stand today, including, the highest parachute jump, the longest freefall, and the fastest speed ever by a human through the atmosphere.

Kittinger's use of the small parachute for stabilization during his record-setting fall. Roger Eugene Andreyev, a Russian, is touted as holding the world's free fall record of 80,325 feet (24,483 meters), made on November 1, 1962.

(text edited from the YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gn2oLeC_U)

Have you ever heard of this before?