30 minutes after take-off, Kittinger reaches 29,000 feet, the middle of the troposphere. At this altitude, the air is so thin that each breath contains only a third of the oxygen found at sea level. Kittinger breathes from gas bottles connected to his sealed helmet. He’s still barely a third of the way to the jump-point. 

 

There are another 14 miles to go. And the air pressure is dropping rapidly. So at about forty thousand feet, suddenly the pressure suit starts inflating and that’s when you start checking it to make certain that it’s working properly. 

 

But there is a crucial fault in the suit. The glove covering this right hand is not sealed. 

 

I had an option to tell the ground that I had a problem. And I knew that if I did, they’d probably make me abort the flight and I was concerned that if we had to abort that flight, then we would have been turned down to try to do it again. So I didn’t tell them.

 

Kittinger prays that this is an isolated fault and continues to climb at 1000 feet per minute. After 89 minutes, he approaches his target altitude. The balloon’s climb slows and then stalls.