First Man in Space...

I have a question. A simple question. An answer you can immediately find just by typing it in a search engine. Who was the first man in space?

...Well? Did you search it up? Or maybe you already know...

...I'm assuming that the name Yuri Gagarin came up first. Yet we often forget about the smaller individuals.

Through the help of astronomical government acknowledgement, we often say that Yurin Gagarin was the first man in space. He used a rocket I believe.

I believe the truly first man in space was Joseph Kittinger. He flew to an unimaginable 102, 800 feet (31 km), using a balloon. At that height the body would feel almost the same effects as one would if orbit the Earth at a higher altitude. So at 31 km above the Earth, conditions are indeed space-like. He, in a sense, reached space. Then he took the biggest, and truly the highest step at the time by doing what no one could possibly have the courage to do. He jumped.

He didn't fall, rather he accelerated; and boy did he accelerate. He reached a speed of 990 km/h, which (at one point) broke the sound-barrier. He was not only the first man in space, but he was also the first man to break the sound barrier without an aircraft.

Yuri Gagarin went up to be the first man to travel in space, which is a monumental task indeed and will definitely be recorded in the history books. However he was still the second man in space entirely. He went up in 1961.

Joseph Kittinger was truly the first man in space, as he went up to take the world's, as well as human-kind's, highest step at 102,800 feet in 1960.