If you Google “first human in space” you get a bunch of info about this dude Yuri Gagarin, who was in fact the first human in outer space.

The first human in space was Joe Kittenger, an American, a member of the United States Air Force and all around bad ass guy.

On Aug. 16, 1960 Joe took a fucking helium weather balloon 102,800 feet above the earth, well past our atmosphere into that dark, strange, poisonous space beyond. With his blood pooling into his right hand because of a hole in his pressure suit glove, he spent eleven minutes looking down at the Earth from the gondola of the balloon.

How did he get back to Earth you ask? He fucking jumped out of the gondola with a parachute on his back. Joe Kittenger, American pilot and all around bad ass guy, reentered the Earth’s atmosphere at 614 mph in nothing but a god damned pressure suit and is alive today to talk about it. Amazing.