Joe Kittinger autograph ~ Nearing 102,800’ for his parachute jump from a balloon

Description

Offered is a really fine, one-off autographed 8 X 10 color glossy photo of the giant helium balloon that carried Joe Kittinger and his Project Excelsior gondola to his record breaking parachute jump. (A record that lasted 52 years, until the Red Bull jump in 2012.)  Signed in silver in “Joe W Kittinger”.
This guy Kittinger amazes me. Picture this: 1960. The Russians are shooting dogs into space and we are grooming monkeys to be America’s finest. Just a year earlier the Mercury 7 astronauts were first announced. Kennedy hadn’t even said yet that America would be first to the moon.
Have you seen or read The Right Stuff? The Seven were concerned Chuck Yeager was making them look like pansies.
H E
flew. The ‘astronauts’, to date, were monkeys and a dog and NASA was grooming them to be the same. They weren’t even going to put a window in the Mercury capsule.
But this guy Colonel Joe Kittinger, someone you have probably never heard of takes a helium ballon to 102,800!!  And jumps out!
How do I know about this guy? And why do I have this image? Look at the second image (which is
NOT
part of this lot). Do you see the red duct tape holding his pants closed? Well, guess who one of the largest wholesalers of duct tape in the US is? Shameless plug, but if you said anyone other than Merco Tape and Tape by the Case you’d be wrong.
Why are we offering this? It is a true Closeout. We needed this image for a duct tape advertising campaign and in the past I’ve been ‘befriended’ eh hem by Getty and the others for using pictures we didn’t own. So we bought it.  As it turned out we went with another picture of Kittinger but we still own this one. Now you can too.
We have never seen this image anywhere before. It is a rare one, possibly a one-off signed for a friend or colleague. This sold at the R R Auction April 22 2021 auction. (For 0. Don’t tell the CFO or he’ll fire me, the president). Money spent and now it’s water under the bridge. Trumping the CFO I decided this was better hanging on someone else’s wall (even for less money) than in our filing cabinet.
A great time to save a fortune on something like this. A wonderful gift for those interested in space, astronauts, Air Force, parachute, helium balloons, brave explorers and even plain old people who like to live outside the envelope, for real or vicariously.
Shipped via FedEx ground or USPS Priority included in the price.