[holymoly]

can he really survive?!

Possibly. Even probably.

On Aug.16, 1960, Joe Kittinger made a jump from 102,800 feet. Of course, Joe Kittinger was in the service, and his jump was not done for personal fame or glory, but for research (Project Excelsior).

[RayChuang88]

There was a reason why they did Project Excelsior: the USAF wanted to know if a pilot could safely survive a free fall from extreme altitudes. The fact Kittinger survived showed it could be done, but NASA--probably after studying the data from this project--in the end put in "escape towers" on both the Mercury and Apollo spacecraft so the whole capsule could be pulled away in case there is a problem with the launch rocket.

(Interestingly, they didn't do that with the Gemini spacecraft, since the launch vehicle--the Titan II--used room-temperature stable propellants. As such, the Gemini capsule relied on ejection seats to "punch out" during the earliest phases of launch.)

[newfreep]