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On 16 August 1960, 32-year-old USAF Pilot,Captain Joe Kittinger, kitted out in a pressure-suit and a specially constructed and rigged parachute—boarded a gondola tethered to a helium balloon, ascended to 102,800-feet above the New Mexico desert—and jumped. During the ensuing four-minute 36-second free-fall, Kittinger’s body accelerated to 614-miles-per-hour. At 14,000 feet, Captain Kittinger deployed his 28-foot main parachute and—in addition to setting records for the highest parachute jump and longest free-fall the world had yet seen—pr