Way to go, Joe!

Yesterday the Smithsonian awarded  Joe Kittinger its highest honor, the Lifetime Achievement Trophy, for jumping out of a perfectly good helium balloon - at over 102,000 feet.

A few years ago he and I worked in the same building and occasionally shared an elevator (must have been quite a come-down for him), but I had kept up with his doings since the 1960 leap; test pilot, fighter pilot, POW, record-setting balloonist, entrepreneur and barnstormer.

When Life Magazine published the cover above I was 11 years old and a space junkie since Sputnik .  From the accompanying article I learned he had attended the Bolles School in Jacksonville, about a mile from my house.  Instant hero.

In my opinion, of course, the award was long overdue.

Great video of his Excelsior jumps on YouTube.