Joe Walker beside an X-15 Airplane

NASA test pilot Joe Walker beside an X-15, following 169,000-foot altitude flight on March 30, 1961. The X-15 flew 199 times from 1959 to 1968 and was an extremely successful aeronautics research program that laid the hypersonics basis for later spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle.

 

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Credit: NASA

Image Number: 60-x-45

Date: March 30, 1961

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