On August 16, 1960, Captain Joseph Kittinger stepped out of an open gondola 102,800 feet above the Earth and fell at 614 miles per hour, setting a stratospheric skydive record that stood unbroken for 52 years. His pressurized glove had failed during the ascent, swelling his hand to twice its size, yet he withheld the information from Mission Control and jumped anyway. This episode traces a life defined by pushing the mechanical and psychological limits of human endurance, from rocket-sled chase flights to a flat spin at 120 revolutions per minute that nearly tore him apart.

Kittinger's story stretches far beyond the balloon programs Man High and Excelsior. He flew 483 combat missions in Vietnam, was shot down, and endured 11 months in the Hanoi Hilton, where he enforced military discipline and the tap code to keep younger prisoners psycholo ...