Leap of Faith

In 1960, Air Force test pilot Joseph W. Kittinger Jr. stepped out of a balloon gondola at 102,800 feet and set the record for the world's highest skydive. That record holds a strong allure for skydiver Cheryl Stearns. She decided to try to break it after Shanon Mary Friedel, a television producer, approached her about leading an elite team that would combine extreme-fitness challenges with aerospace research. Friedel's project, StratoQuest, is raising the $6.5 million needed for Stearns's jump and commissioning a specially made pressurized suit and a high-altitude balloon.

Stearns is planning to ride in the balloon for nearly three hours until she is 130,000 feet above rural Kansas. She'll be perched above 99% of the atmosphere, on the brink of outer space. Ordinarily, when she leaps from a plane at 12,500 feet, she falls 9,000 feet in the first minute. But in the upper reaches of the stratosphere, where the air is significantly thinner, she expects to descend 105,000 feet in just three and a half minutes. She estimates that she'll be traveling between 800 and 900 MPH and might break the sound barrier, becoming the first human to do so without a vehicle. She must hold a perfectly aerodynamic headfirst position with her arms at her sides when she hits Mach 1 (the speed of sound) and goes through the shock wave. Her life depends on it. "If I'm not in the proper position ... I hate to use the word 'disintegrate,' but I could be in real trouble."

Stearns is one of at least three skydivers who have declared their intention to conquer the high-altitude record. Although the jump is far riskier than anything she's attempted so far, she's preparing for it in her usual manner: with relentless discipline and an obsessive eye for every possible malfunction. For Stearns, one of the keys to flying is staying grounded. "This sport teaches you respect -- for Mother Nature, for your abilities, for your equipment, for life," she says. "If you apply all of those things, you become a survivor in life itself."