Joe Walker Set 67-Mile X-15 Altitude Record, Becoming First Person to Reach Space Twice
Updated
Updated · Space.com · Aug 22
Joe Walker Set 67-Mile X-15 Altitude Record, Becoming First Person to Reach Space Twice
2 articles · Updated · Space.com · Aug 22
Summary
67 miles above Earth, Joe Walker took the X-15 #3 to a new piloted altitude record on Aug. 22, 1963, spending about five minutes weightless during an 11-minute flight.
That mission was the X-15 program's second and final suborbital spaceflight, and Walker had flown the first one too, making him the first person to go to space twice.
X-15 #3 also became the first reused spacecraft to return to space after carrying Walker past the Kármán line a month earlier.
The flights gave engineers data on hypersonic flight, reentry heating, stability, structural loads, reaction controls and human performance that fed into Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and later the Space Shuttle.
Walker’s record flight also foreshadowed modern reusability, now exemplified by SpaceX’s Falcon 9, whose previously flown boosters have launched nearly 600 times.