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I'm interested in the experience of being up there. Were you scared?Well, first of all, I was a test pilot and I was used to flying by myself. I was used to doing things with aircraft. This balloon, even though it was a balloon, it was still an aircraft. I felt fairly comfortable even though it was a very small and confining atmosphere. Shortly after take off I had a problem with my radio and I couldn't transmit, I had to use Morse code, which is very slow and laborious. I spent a lot of time transmitting what was happening rather then enjoying what was going on.After that, I discovered there was a valve that had been installed backwards in my life-support system and I was venting the oxygen that I needed for pressurization. I was venting it at a very fast rate so from then on I had to very carefully manage my remaining oxygen supply to keep the capsule pressurized. When I finally got to altitude, 97,000 feet, I'm looking up and it's absolutely black overhead. I had never been that high before. It was just amazing to look up and see the black sky. It's really a shocking event to behold. Every astronaut and every pilot who goes high altitude has the same marvel of looking at that black sky.I was very busy but I was happy--it was exciting. One of the doctors got a little concerned. I had already been trying to get the balloon to come down for an hour but the sun kept heating it up and it wouldn't come down. This guy on the ground kept calling up "We need you to come down right now. Well I got ticked off at this guy bugging me so I tapped out in Morse code "C-o-m-e u-p a-n-d g-e-t m-e." And that got them all excited and upset. I didn't have any concern about my safety, though; I figured I could take care of myself. We had the emergency systems I could have used. I had faith in myself. I had faith in my equipment, and I had faith in the team that I was working with. That's what it takes. What was Project Excelsior like?
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