The first fastest man

A lot has been made of Neil Armstrong. A bit less about Yuri Gagarin. I found out today about Joe Kittinger - the first guy in space. The videos below:

YouTube: Discovery Science, Kittinger, Einstein, and Gravity
YouTube: Project Excelsior

are kinda mind-blowing. It's impossible to comprehend that a guy jumped out of a weather ballon with a space-suit from 30 km up. His fall was for more than 13 MINUTES! I once dove off a pier and that lasted 4 seconds. It was about as close to eternity as I wanted to be. 13 minutes in free-fall (ok, maybe 10 minutes in free-fall and the rest under parachute) is just beyond comprehension!

Check out the videos if you haven't already seen the special on the Discovery channel (Project Excelcior) [thanks to thedailyseige for that link]