Space Dive Page #6

---

How are you doing?

It really hurts my stomach.

Got stomach pain now.

'It's getting hot and cold

inside your body.'

You can feel how you start sweating.

Your respiration rate

has definitely changed.

'You feel claustrophobic, you know?

'I was really close to telling the

guys, "Hey, get me out of this suit.

'"I can't deal with that any more."

'I was really fighting against it,

you know?

'Fighting against my own fear,

fighting against my own mind.'

'Everybody's counting on you.'

Everyone thinks you're a really

cool guy, you can deal with it,

and, I mean, I have to accomplish

a jump from 130,000ft,

breaking the speed of sound,

and I can't even stand

being in the suit on the ground.

Do we have experience from

other pilots? What do they say?

Sure. They do feel

more and more confident,

the more and more they do it,

but ah, it's a learning curve.

And you're getting it.

Felix's anxiety about the suit

brings back uncomfortable memories

for Mike Todd.

40 years ago, he worked

with another civilian

attempting to jump

from extreme altitude.

Nick Piantanida

was a 33-year-old skydiver

who had dreams

of beating Joe's record.

Nick was going at 125,000 feet.

David Clark supplied him

with a pressure suit

and we supplied him

with a parachute.

Didn't quite have the backing

that we have on this project,

nor did he have the experience.

Like Felix, Nick had never

worked in a pressure suit.

Despite intense training,

he never felt comfortable in it.

On 1st May, 1966,

he took off in his balloon.

'Testing, 1, 2, 3.

'1, 2, 3.'

A recording of his communication

with mission control has survived.

Two hours into his ascent,

something went terribly wrong.

'Visor...'

'What was that, Nick?'

'Emergen...'

Emergency, cut him off.

He was probably up around

50,000 feet and some way or another,

the visor was either opened

accidentally or intentionally,

we really don't know.

The people on the ground

immediately cut the balloon away

from the gondola.

By the time they got to him,

they found him

outside of the gondola

with the visor partially open.

Nick was in a coma

caused by hypoxia -

a lack of oxygen to the brain.

He died four months later.

'Am...I the next one who fails?'

'I'm 40 years old,

and I want to get older, you know?'

Good.

All right, let's go.

The scientists want to analyse

the aerodynamics of Felix in flight.

It's the kind of low-altitude jump

that Felix is used to...

..but wearing the suit,

even unpressurised,

makes it a challenge.

It's like watching a hawk in flight.

I deal with aircraft,

and we make machines

that do certain flight dynamics.

In this case, the machine is Felix.

At this altitude, Felix falls

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes