Welcome to this special edition of Aerospace Live! On the show today we have two special guests. Jason Krueger CEO from StratoStar and the very special guest, Joe Kittinger.

Col Joe is the Ambassador to the Civil Air Patrols High Altitude Balloon Challenge and sponsor of the first ever Kittinger Cup.

Col Joe's initial operational assignment was in fighter aircraft, then he participated in Project Manhigh and Project Excelsior high-altitude balloon flight projects from 1956 to 1960, setting a world record for the highest skydive from a height greater than 19 miles (31 km). He was also the first man to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a gas balloon, and the first man to fully witness the curvature of the earth.

Kittinger served as a fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, and he achieved an aerial kill of a North Vietnamese MiG-21 jet fighter and was later shot down himself, spending 11 months as a prisoner of war in a North Vietnamese prison.

Kittinger participated in the Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator in 2012 at age 84, directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking 24-mile (39 km) freefall from Earth's stratosphere, which broke Kittinger's own 53-year-old world record of 102,800 feet (31,300 m) set in 1959.

Aerospace Education is here to help develop a community of folks interested in Space Exploration and the desire to want to learn how to fly. Bob Roberts is a General Aviation Pilot and a member of Civil Air Patrol.

If you are interested in learning more about CAP and the great work that we do, please visit gocivilairpatrol.com or leave me a message and I would be happy to help you learn more.