F-4 Phantom Dedication Ceremony at Joe Kittinger Park
Project Man High I – June 2, 1957
Project Man-High was a classified United States Air Force (USAF) extreme altitude research project that used helium balloons to hoist men in aluminum gondolas to the middle layers of the stratosphere in order to study the effects of cosmic rays on the human body. With the pilot and the scientific payload, the Man-High gondola had a total mass of 748 kg (1,649 lb). At maximum altitude, the balloon expanded to a diameter of 60 m (200 ft) with a volume of over 85,000 m3 (111,000 cu yd). Man-High I was launched on June 2, 1957, and was piloted by USAF Capt. Joseph W. Kittinger to an altitude of 29,500 meters (96,784 feet). Kittinger was awarded the first of several Distinguished Flying Crosses for the flight, and went on to participate in a number of extreme altitude research programs such as Project Excelsior and Project Stargazer.