Project Excelsior

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Project Excelsior
Final jump seen from Excelsior III
Duration	1959–1960 (three jumps)
Places	Stratosphere over the New Mexico desert
Purpose	Test of parachute for high altitude falls
Vehicle	Helium balloon with open gondola (the aeronaut was wearing a pressure suit)
Aeronaut	Joe Kittinger (Captain, USAF)
Records	(Last jump, 16 August 1960): Altitude: 19.47 mi (31.33 km) Speed: 614 mph (988 km/h) Duration: 13 m 45 s

Project Excelsior was a series of parachute jumps made by Joseph Kittinger of the United States Air Force in 1959 and 1960 from helium balloons in the stratosphere. The purpose was to test the Beaupre multi-stage parachute system intended to be used by pilots ejecting from high altitude. In one of these jumps Kittinger set world records for the longest parachute drogue fall, the highest parachute jump, and the fastest speed by a human through the atmosphere. He held the latter two of these records for 52 years, until they were broken by Felix Baumgartner of the Red Bull Stratos project in 2012,^[1] though he still holds the world record for longest time in free fall.