My Journey to the Edge of Space
I tagged along with elite U-2 pilots for a high-altitude flight above Earth
As I slipped open the sunshade of my spacesuit, I could see that the sky above was black. The curved white and blue Earth fell away below me, as I sailed like Icarus past 70,000 feet. That afternoon, I was among the highest humans floating above Earth, with only the astronauts on the International Space Station and the Soyuz spacecraft higher than me.
Noticeably absent was any trace of sound or fury. We were flying silently through the upper atmosphere in what amounted to a large black wing, aptly named the U-2 Dragon Lady. Just below and in front of me, the master of this craft, Lt. Col. Joe “Tucc” Santucci, coaxed our dragon higher and higher, trying to get every last foot of altitude.
“She’s given us all she can today,” said Tucc, my pilot and the commander of the 99th Reconnaissance Squadron, as we leveled off past 70,000 feet. The glass around my canopy was beginning to freeze over from the combination of extreme cold (70 degrees below zero) and the vapor from my (likely rapid) breath.
It was an ethereal feeling to be floating among ice crystals reflecting the bright sunlight on the edge of space.
