Joseph Kittinger: The First Man In Space?

> Hello Gang,
> So who was the first man in space?
>
> Alex Michael Bonnici

Hi Alex,

There were other high-altitude ballon expeditions a lot of times
before Joseph Kittenger. Auguste Antoine Piccard (1884 1962) reached
23 kilometers in the 30s. And he was the inventor of the
presurized "space capsules".

If any, he was the first "man in space". Now, In 1963, the X-15 marked
an altitude record for an airplane at 67 miles (108 km) which is
technically space. Now in 1947 the Bell X-1 reached 21 kilometers. Now
those records don't count as space travel expeditions.

What Gagarin did was not only to get 3 times higher than the balloners
or at the same altitude than X-15 aircraft pilots that went later up
there. Gagarin entered orbit !!
The condition to be considered a spatial travel is to get at least to
orbit.

Gagarin deserves the recognition of being the pioneer of space
exploration, no matter he was not an American.

Omar Vega