Daily Weird News Report
U.S. Air Force Capt. Joe Walker reached an altitude of more than 67 miles (108 kilometers) on Aug. 22, 1963, setting a world altitude record for a pilot, according to Space.com. The rocket-powered X-15 flight carried him roughly 5 miles above the commonly used edge of space.
The mission lasted about 11 minutes, including approximately five minutes of weightlessness. It was the second and final X-15 flight to qualify as a suborbital spaceflight, and Walker piloted both of them. As a result, he became the first person to travel to space twice.
Walker used X-15 No. 3 for both missions. The aircraft had already taken him beyond the Kármán line about a month earlier, making it one of the earliest examples of a spacecraft returning from space and flying there again.
The X-15 program was designed to study how people and vehicles performed at hypersonic speeds and during the transition between the atmosphere and space. Its rocket planes collected information on heating, stability, structural loads, human performance and piloting during reentry.
The program also tested reaction-control systems, which allowed the aircraft to maneuver when the air became too thin for ordinary aerodynamic controls. According to Space.com, the lessons from these flights contributed to NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, as well as the later Space Shuttle program.
Walker’s record-setting mission therefore demonstrated more than a remarkable altitude. It also showed that a vehicle could reach space, return safely and be flown there again—an early example of the reusability that later became central to spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle.
