{"id":242956,"date":"2025-06-28T03:49:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=be743f397af3a81fdc3a2307a08eed42"},"modified":"2025-06-28T03:49:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T17:49:34","slug":"astronaut-joe-engle-flies-x-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=242956","title":{"rendered":"Astronaut Joe Engle Flies X-15"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1641\" height=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?w=1641\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"A man in a silver suit holds a helmet in his left arm. He looks off to the side. He is standing in front of a black plane.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg 2770w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=240,300 240w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=768,959 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=820,1024 820w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=1230,1536 1230w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=1641,2048 1641w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=320,400 320w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=481,600 481w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=721,900 721w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=961,1200 961w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/29242855965-1388a62ecc-o.jpg?resize=1602,2000 1602w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1641px) 100vw, 1641px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">In 1963, Captain Engle was assigned as one of two Air Force test pilots to fly the X-15 Research Rocket aircraft. In 1965, he flew the X-15 to an altitude of 280,600 feet, and became the youngest pilot ever to qualify as an astronaut. Three of his sixteen flights in the X-15 exceeded the 50-mile (264,000 feet) altitude required for astronaut rating.<\/div>\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">NASA<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Former NASA astronaut <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/joe-engle-special-report\/\">Joe Engle<\/a> poses in front of an X-15 plane in this Dec. 2, 1965, photo. On June 29, 1965, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/aeronautics\/the-x-15-the-pilot-and-the-space-shuttle\/\">Engle flew the X-15<\/a> to 280,600 feet, becoming the youngest U.S. pilot to qualify as an astronaut.<\/p>\n<p>The Kansas native flew the X-15 for the U.S. Air Force 16 times from 1963 to 1965. Three times Engle flew an X-15 higher than 50 miles (the altitude required for astronaut rating), officially qualifying him for Air Force astronaut wings and providing him a brief moment for sightseeing at the edge of space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could glance out and see the blackness of space above and the extremely bright Earth below. The horizon had the same bands of color you see from the shuttle, with black on top, then purple to deep indigo, then blues and whites,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: NASA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former NASA astronaut Joe Engle poses in front of an X-15 plane in this Dec. 2, 1965, photo. On June 29, 1965, Engle flew the X-15 to 280,600 feet, becoming the youngest U.S. pilot to qualify as an astronaut. The Kansas native flew the X-15 for the U.S. Air Force 16 times from 1963 to [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15640,17238],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aeronautics","category-joe-h-engle"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242956"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243013,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242956\/revisions\/243013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}