James May at the Edge of Space

I am in training to go where few civilians have gone -

a place the US Air Force call "the space equivalent zone".

I'll be so high above the Earth, I'll need this spacesuit just to stay alive.

Three, two, one...

I've three days of punishing training to get through.

Oh!

That really hurt. LAUGHTER

Unless you're screaming for dear mothering God all the way down,

-you should have plenty of air.

-I will be.

But at the end, I'm in for the flight of a lifetime

in a truly remarkable aircraft.

Hey, hey!

Short of becoming an astronaut, it's as close to space as I can get.

Yes!

Oh, man, I've got that curvature of the horizon thing.

Look at that, that's perfect.

Oh, it's lovely.

Man in heaven!

The U-2 is one of the strangest flying machines ever built.

It's a relic of the Cold War, a controversial and top secret aircraft

that pushed the boundaries of aviation to new heights.

Here it is, the Lockheed U-2, or the Dragon Lady to her close friends.

It has the fuselage of a jet fighter,

but it has the wings of a glider, 104 feet of them, and for a very good reason.

These are designed to cling on to terrifyingly thin air.

This is the world's highest-flying plane.

A jumbo flying across the Atlantic

will typically fly at between 35,000 and 40,000 feet.

This will fly at 70,000 feet.

From the cockpit of this, the jumbo down below will appear as small

as it normally does from the ground.

And from there I'll be able to see the curvature of the Earth

and look up at the blackness of space.

To fly a U-2, you need over 1,000 jet fighter hours under your belt.

I don't have any, but thankfully, I've been teamed up

with one of the most experienced pilots in the Air Force.

-Hello, sir.

-Hello, James.

-You must be John "Cabi" Cabigas.

-Yes. Good to meet you.

-And you. You're the pilot?

-Yes.

Excellent. So we can't just get in and go, can we?

You'll want to torture me and humiliate me first.

That's necessary, of course. We'll have two and a half days of training

so that you know how to egress out of the aircraft.

We'll do local area survival training, so if we have to eject out of the aircraft

and land in the woods or ocean, you'll be able to survive.

-Fighting off bears?

-And sharks.

-We do have great white sharks as well.

-All right.

Since we'll be flying above 70,000 feet,

without a full pressure suit to keep you alive, you're a goner up there.

-It really is a spacesuit?

-Yes, you can use it in outer space.

Space shuttle pilots borrowed our suits for their first shuttle mission.

-Really?

-That's right.

That may seem pretty routine to a U-2 pilot like Cabi,

but the idea that my life will depend on this suit at 70,000 feet -

that's quite alarming.

Space geeks will be keen to point out

that space officially starts at 60 miles altitude.

At 70,000 feet, I will only be about 30 miles up.

However, back long before the space race started in the 1950s,

the beginning of space was considered to be 50,000 feet

and that's because physiologically, in terms of the effect it has on your body,

50,000 feet is space.

If you walked outside into 50,000 feet wearing normal clothes like these,

you'd be dead in probably five seconds.

But U-2s were designed to fly way beyond that.

As far back as 1955, the Air Force had to find a way to keep pilots alive

in what they considered space.

And in order to do that, the Americans were forced to invent

what we would now call the spacesuit.

That is why even though the Soviets stole a bit of a march on the Americans

at the beginning of the space race,

the Americans were ahead on the development of the spacesuit.

It's one of the reasons they went on to win the race to the moon.

So whenever you see old film of astronauts floating in space,

the suits they're wearing are practically identical

to the one I'll be wearing during my flight.

If I'm going to be a spaceman, I'd better pay attention.

If I don't shape up, I don't fly.

I've been given a "skedule"...

and today I have to have a medical.

And they've asked me to bring...

my entire medical history from birth, which is all in that folder,

and my dental records, which is presumably so they can identify me

from my jawbone when they find it in the desert in three years' time.

Time to meet the doctor.

-James, could you come this way?

-Right oh.

"Have you felt down, depressed or hopeless?"

No.

"Are you currently feeling threatened or afraid?"

That's a "no", isn't it?

It says, "Are you having any thoughts of hurting yourself or others?"

Strictly, that's a "yes", but I think they want me to put "no".

Obviously, as this is a military medical,

I'm not expecting anything touchy-feely or anything like that.

Although, actually the risk will be it's very touchy-feely.

Could be worse.

-Hello.

-Hello.

The good doctor has to be thorough.

Any sign of illness or physical defects

and they can't risk putting me in a spacesuit.

Ta-da!

That is medical clearance to fly.

And more importantly from my point of view,

my leg measurement taken from the top of my hip to the end of my knee

falls within a range that means in the event that we have to eject,

I won't...get my legs ripped off.

Which is terrific news.

Now, no spaceman is properly prepared without space pants.

But, suitably attired, I'm ready to be introduced to my spacesuit.

-Good morning.

-Morning.

-Right, what do I do?

-Have a seat.

The long johns are just the first of my suit's five layers.

Oh!

Breathable Gore-Tex, airtight rubber, a restraining wire mesh

and the yellow protective layer create an airtight cocoon around me.

Right, I've got a bit of a hair issue here.

'This is a quarter of a million dollars' worth of space technology.'

One, two, three...

'This suit is going to be my life support system.

'I have to learn to avoid suffocating once I'm sealed inside.'

It's all right, actually. It's better than I expected.

'Cabi's here. He's promised to hold my hand for the next bit

'because if I can't operate all these regulators, I'm in trouble.'

When we're ready, we're gonna connect your oxygen.

'They keep the suit pressurised, control the temperature inside

'and deliver oxygen into my helmet.'

You don't want to inflate the suit without your visor down

cos it'll try to extrude your head out the helmet.

You don't want that.

'I guess I look the part now,

'but the big test is whether the suit and I can hold up under extreme pressure.'

'Here goes.'

(HISSING)

Oh! Could you open this up a minute?

Oh...

-Are you doing OK?

-No, can you let it down?

Oh, shit.

What's wrong? Ears, sinus?

No, it's really freaking me out. Sorry, I'm doing my best, but it's awful.

Oh!

Sorry. Please don't film it.

First time I ever put just our low-flight helmet on with the mask,

I was very claustrophobic and ended up vomiting after that episode.

It's pretty common, it's pretty normal.

You just do a couple of things to try to overcome that. Again mind over matter.

Well, I've done my first series of spacesuit tests.

And the suit works perfectly well, but I'm not sure I performed that brilliantly

because I do find it, if I'm brutally honest, a bit claustrophobic.

It's not the suit. It's very comfortable. It's the helmet.

It's very close to your head and it's got a rubber seal round.

Oxygen hisses in and out and the visor's right there. It freaks me out a bit.

U-2s first went into service in 1955.

Their objective was to spy, in total secrecy,

on America's Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union.

The plane was built to fly way beyond the reach of enemy fighters or missiles

or even radar.

But its cover was blown in 1960

when pilot Gary Powers fell out of the sky over Russia,

causing a bit of a to-do.

And it was a pig to land.

Pilots had to rely on their mates to talk them down to Earth

from high-speed cars on the runway.

Down to six.

Five, four, three...

And 50 years later, they're still at it.

Just a little bit more left rudder.

OK, coming down, six inches, hold it off.

He's definitely on the centre line.

Now, the wing tips have titanium skids on the bottom,

so they are designed to scrape that way.

Spectacular.

Once the planes come to a halt,

there's a remarkably low-tech way of holding up the wings,

and I can't resist making myself useful.

Do you want another body...?

I'm just adding my weight to this wing to lift the other one up,

so they can get the so-called pogo back in.

There it is then. Funny old beast.

But I rather like it.

Well, this has all been rather excellent so far. I've bonded with the U-2 a bit.

I've chased it up and down the runway in the car which was a novel experience.

Tomorrow, it does get a little bit more serious

because I have to learn how to get out of that in an emergency, i.e. eject,

and how to survive if I happen to come down

in the Californian desert somewhere.

Still, it'll be great.

Bailing out at 70,000 feet would be no charity parachute jump.

Blasted into thin air inside a sealed suit,

I'd have 13 miles to fall, most of it strapped to my seat.

-Good morning.

-How are you doin'?

I'm Sergeant Hartzler. I'll be your egress and parachute trainer for today.

Feet, leg, butt, back, roll. Shall I do it again?

-Do it again.

-I knew you'd say that.

Why might I need to eject? It's unlikely, isn't it?

-I won't say it's unlikely...

-Please say it's unlikely!

It does happen, so we do this training to prepare you for that.

Feet down, rudder, I'm in.

You may have to eject due to the tail falling off, um...

An explosion in the air for any reason.

But this is a pretty safe aircraft. We have a good track record.

-Do the tails fall off regularly?

-We fixed that problem a long time ago.

If the pilot says, "Bail out, bail out, bail out," put your feet back. OK?

-Your shoulder blades will be back.

-Yeah.

-There you go.

-Can I stay here for a bit?

Take your left hand and grab your right wrist.

The reason I'm having you practise that is because

up in altitude if you were to go convertible, it takes that much strength

to bring that wrist down to that ejection handle.

Unless you are screaming for dear mothering God all the way down, you should have plenty of air.

I will be.

I banged my head!

-Shall I do it again?

-Do it again.

Matron.

-This is our pilot torture device.

-OK, slide out slowly.

-There you go.

-Ow!

-Those feel good, don't they?

-Bloody hell!

Now release the loosest one first, which is this one.

There you go.

That really hurt.

-All right, do you want to stand up?

-No.

LAUGHTER

-Any other questions?

-Can I have my testicles back?

Excellent. Thank you very much.

Have a great flight and hope to see you back.

I hope I won't need anything you taught me. Ever.

That's what we plan for.

It's a critical stage in my training.

I'm back in the spacesuit preparing for a much bigger challenge.

This is my introduction to high altitude physiology.

I'm entering a vacuum chamber

which can simulate the atmosphere at 75,000 feet.

Captain Latimer wants me to prove that I can stay alive

with just my spacesuit for protection.

Sergeants Johnson and Jacobson are with you today, two of our finest.

You got a good chance to meet those guys in the integration room.

There's an awful lot of people, presumably all to keep me alive

because when all the air is pumped out,

this chamber will turn deadly, making some strange things happen.

-Is that gonna boil?

-That will begin to boil at 63,000 feet.

I'll keep you posted on that as we get a bit closer to it.

OK, we're gonna start our rapid ascent up to 75,000 feet now.

Roger.

And we're gonna keep an eye on that glove

which has already expanded considerably.

Now, we've just passed through 50,000 feet.

That's what the Air Force deems as the space equivalent zone.

That's a carry-over back to the old space race days

when we were trying to set a timeline between us...

There it goes!

'Let's just be clear. That water isn't boiling because it's hot.

'It's boiling because the pressure is so low.

'Without this suit on, my tears and saliva would boil too.'

And our glove just popped, so it made it to 70,000 feet.

'So far, so good, but things would get a lot more hairy

'if my cockpit canopy were to fail.

'Without my suit, such a catastrophic pressure drop would rip apart my lungs.

'Let's practise that then!'

Three, two, one.

-Agh!

-There you go. Hold that. Perfect.

You're doing a great job. Looking good. How are you feeling?

-I'm still breathing.

-You are.

Your suit pressure looks excellent, your helmet pressure looks good.

So everything working exactly like it's supposed to, which is always great.

'Good. I'm very glad that's over with.'

Well done. Your brains didn't blow up. Your eyes didn't bulge out.

Your guts didn't fall out. It's a good day so far.

What do you say we get you out of that kit?

-Yeah, let's get out of it.

-This way.

There is one more thing to sort out before my training is over.

I'm reporting to Captain Latimer again to discuss a rather delicate matter.

What we're gonna talk about now is the urine collection device,

so if you needed to urinate at altitude, this is available to you.

We'll kind of start off by separating this piece off.

-This is a once-used component?

-It's not, actually.

It's... Once it's...

The pilots... This is able to be washed.

When the pilots are done showering,

they'll take it in the shower with them

and rinse and clean it out and ready to go again.

And how do you... I don't want to get too graphic about this,

but I have to try and get this around my chap?

-Correct.

-Cor blimey!

Won't it just make it fall off like docking a lamb's tail? It's very tight.

It is, and that's why we say... We trim it.

You'll trim it to fit

and we can provide a technician back there with you as well

to assist in that... in the actual trimming,

to show you how to work it if you need to.

But the main thing is we'll make sure that it does fit properly.

If it's overly tight, it constricts blood flow.

You do have to trim this piece to fit.

And best to maybe go a little conservative with the trim at first,

then try it on and you can cut it back.

-So no boasting sort of...?

-Right, right.

OK. That's...terrific.

Well then, I've done all the training a civilian can really do.

I can even remember about half of it.

And providing the weather is good enough tomorrow -

it looks as if it probably will be - then we're off.

I'm very excited. I am slightly apprehensive.

I'll be brutally honest - I don't like wearing the spacesuit.

I find it very, very claustrophobic.

And the instant I put the visor down, I get an itch on the end of my nose.

And it'll be down for four hours or so.

But they do it, so... They do it for 12 hours, in fact, so I'm sure I'll be fine.

It's the big day.

Today is my chance to dip my toe into the infinity of space.

As I'm suited up for real,

it is dawning on me how vulnerable humans are

the moment we leave the safety of Earth.

Sure, moon rockets were amazing inventions,

but the Apollo astronauts themselves were only on board

thanks to the technology of human survival in space.

If a suit like this was good enough to get Neil Armstrong to the moon,

it's good enough for me.

I do actually feel a bit like an Apollo astronaut now

on the long journey out to the launch pad.

Ground crew clear.

-Ready to go?

-I'm ready to go.

Whoa!

Man in heaven! Hey, hey, hey!

500 from take-off.

And we're off!

Into the weather.

-Stand by one minute.

-We're about to climb.

That is incredible.

'There is so much lift in this thing, we're climbing at 8,000 feet every minute.'

What's the highest you've been in a jet before?

40... 45,000 feet.

We'll be past that in roughly about two minutes.

So I'm about to break my personal altitude record.

That's correct.

'This is situation normal for the U-2

'which is still at the forefront of strategic reconnaissance after 50 years.

'Or as they put it, "In God, we trust - all others, we monitor." '

We're just approaching the start of what was space in the old days.

-That's correct. Here it comes.

-50,000 feet. There it is.

Skipper, I'm feeling a slight build-up of what I believe you Americans call gas.

No, we call that a fart. JAMES LAUGHS

Permission to decompress, sir?

-Permission granted.

-Thank you.

Excuse me.

I think I'm gonna have a little bit of lunch.

-You're having lunch?

-Yes, sir.

Right oh. I might join you with a bit of apple pie.

'Perhaps that will take my mind off the fact

'that we're hardly clinging on in this thin air.

'If Cabi changes speed by as little as ten knots, we'll fall out of the sky.

'It's a margin U-2 pilots call "coffin corner".'

God, I've just noticed how dark the sky is!

God, I hadn't looked up!

-It's quite dark, isn't it?

-That's incredible.

There it is. 70,000 feet.

HE LAUGHS

This is madness. Is anybody else up here? Presumably not.

Yes!

Oh, man, I've got that curvature of the horizon thing.

-Look at that, that's perfect.

-Yeah.

That just looks fantastic.

Oh, it's lovely.

Do you get bored of looking at that? Surely not.

Oh, I never do.

Oh, it's terrific.

Now let's see if it works... Oh, yes!

Gosh, it's made me feel slightly emotional.

Feel free.

'This is an uncanny sensation.

'It's like dangling from some celestial child's mobile,

'even though I know we're cruising at nearly 500 knots.

'Apart from the crew of the Space Station, we're the highest people in the world.'

Man in heaven!

The sky looks just breathtaking.

If indeed that is the sky. Most of the sky is below us.

I think that might be a view of eternity.

Technically speaking, you are correct.

It's absolutely...

just almost impossible to articulate what it feels like.

That is the real shape of the good Earth.

It's rather humbling.

-Breathtaking.

-You're welcome.

Welcome to the world of high flying.

I'm slightly lost for words, I have to say.

There you go.

Sorry, I'm slightly...

Whoa! It's amazing.

-Thank you, Skipper.

-Welcome back to Earth.

Good job. I've got something special for you.

Turn around this way, so everybody can see.

So, what you didn't know is I stowed this aboard on your pressure suit.

And I'd like you to have your own 70,000-foot two-dollar bill there.

-Oh, thank you.

-What do you think of that?

Fantastic. Still suffering a little bit of rapid decompression. Is that normal?

You mean your guts?

'The experience Cabi has just given me is actually priceless.

'Even so, I'll always treasure my two-buck souvenir from the edge of space.'

'Because every time I take it out of my wallet, I remember this.'

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