On the
17th of April, 1976, space craft Helios 2 set the record for the
fastest man-made object at approximately 150,000mph;
241,350 km/h; 203.25 times the speed of sound at -3 degrees Celsius (see Mach); or about 1/4470th the speed of light.
Don't worry about the passengers' brains melting, the
fastest man-made object was
unmanned. The fastest *Manned* Vehicle was
the Apollo 10 capsule on re-entry at ~24,790 mph (39,885 km/h) on the 26th of May 1969.
