![Project Manhigh, National Museum of USAF](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Project_Manhigh%2C_National_Museum_of_USAF.jpg)
Project Manhigh was a pre-
Space Age
The Space Age is a period encompassing the activities related to the Space Race, space exploration, space technology, and the cultural developments influenced by these events, beginning with the Sputnik_1#Launch_and_mission, launch of Sputnik 1 ...
military project that took men in
balloons
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the per ...
to the middle layers of the
stratosphere
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...
, funded as an aero-medical research program, though seen by its designers as a stepping stone to space. It was conducted by the
United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...
between 1955 and 1958.
History
The project
started in December 1955 to study the effects of
cosmic rays
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own ...
on humans. Three balloon flights to the
stratosphere
The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air ...
were made during the program:
* Manhigh I to , by
Captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
Joseph W. Kittinger on June 2, 1957. The balloon was launched from
South St. Paul Airport and the flight was cut short due to one of the capsule's valves being installed backwards which vented the oxygen supply outside, but not before reaching a record altitude of 96,784 feet.
* Manhigh II to , by
Major
Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...
David G. Simons
David Goodman Simons (June 7, 1922 – April 5, 2010) was an American physician turned U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who, as part of Project Manhigh, set a high-altitude balloon flight record in 1957 at above the Earth in an aluminum capsule s ...
on August 19–20, 1957, launched from Portsmouth Mine in Crosby, Minnesota, for a 32-hour flight that included a set of 25 experiments and observations, and earned Simons a
''Life'' magazine cover spot.
With the pilot and the scientific payload, the Manhigh II gondola had a total mass of . At maximum altitude, the balloon expanded to a diameter of with a volume of over .
* Manhigh III to , by
Lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...
Clifton M. McClure
Clifton may refer to:
People
*Clifton (surname)
*Clifton (given name)
Places
Australia
*Clifton, Queensland, a town
**Shire of Clifton
*Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong
*Clifton, Western Australia
Canada
*Clifton, Nova Scotia, ...
on October 8, 1958
Clifton McClure; Rode Balloon to Edge of Space
/ref>
Candidates for the Manhigh project were put through a series of physical and psychological tests that became the standard for qualifying astronauts for the Project Mercury
Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States, running from 1958 through 1963. An early highlight of the Space Race, its goal was to put a man into Earth orbit and return him safely, ideally before the Soviet Un ...
, America's first manned orbital space program.
Similar projects in which men in a gondola reached near-space altitudes were performed by Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard
Auguste Antoine Piccard (28 January 1884 – 24 March 1962) was a Switzerland, Swiss physicist, inventor and explorer known for his record-breaking Gas balloon, hydrogen balloon flights, with which he studied the Earth's upper atmosphere. Picca ...
and Paul Kipfer, reaching in 1931, USSR-1
''USSR-1'' (russian: СССР-1) was a record-setting, hydrogen-filled Soviet Air Forces high-altitude balloon designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's stratosphere. On September 30, 1933, ''USSR-1'' under G ...
piloted by Georgy Prokofiev Georgy (Yegor) Alekseyevich Prokofiev (born August 17, 1902, in Teleshovo, Vyazma District – died April 23, 1939, in Moscow) was a Soviet Air Forces balloonist who coordinated a military stratospheric balloon program in 1931–1939. On Septe ...
reaching in 1933, and Osoaviakhim-1
Osoaviakhim-1 was a Highest manned balloon flight, record-setting, hydrogen-filled Soviet Union, Soviet high-altitude balloon, high-altitude Balloon (aircraft), balloon designed to seat a crew of three and perform scientific studies of the Earth's ...
reaching in 1934.
See also
* John Stapp
Colonel (United States), Colonel John Paul Stapp (July 11, 1910 – November 13, 1999), Doctor of Medicine, M.D., Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D., was an Americans, American career United States Air Force, U.S. Air Force officer, flight surgeon, phy ...
*Project Excelsior
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 ...
, follow-on flights in 1959 and 1960
*Flight altitude record
This listing of flight altitude records are the records set for the highest aeronautical flights conducted in the atmosphere, set since the age of ballooning.
Some, but not all of the records were certified by the non-profit international avia ...
References
Bibliography
* Kane, Joseph Nathan (1997), ''Famous First Facts: A Record of First Happenings, Discoveries, and Inventions in American History'' (Fifth Edition), The H.W. Wilson Company,
Further reading
*
*
* {{cite book , title=Manhigh , first=David G. , last=Simons , first2=Don A. , last2=Schanche , publisher=Avon Books , year=1960
External links
* Details o
Manhigh I
an
at stratocat.com.ar
Space Men
(''American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
'' episode)
Ballooning
Space research
Human subject research in the United States
Military projects of the United States