Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 60th Anniversary of X-15 Flight 91
22 August 1963: X-15 Flight 91 lifted off from California's Edwards Air Force Base, with Pilot Joe Walker aboard X-15-3 hoisted aloft by the NB-52 mothership
Balls 8; Walker flew his rocketplane through a parabolic arc above the Kármán line for the second time, achieving the highest altitude of the X-15 program, over sixty-seven miles (67.1); X-15-3 landed on Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards.
Commentary: On 23 March 2020, on the fifty-fifth anniversarty of Gemini 3 (The Explorers' Club, № DCCXXXIX), we erroneously acclaimed Gus Grissom as the first person to fly in space twice, during Mercury-Redstone 4 (suborbital, 21 July 1961) & Gemini 3 (orbital, 23 March 1965). In the interval between Mercury-Redstone 4 & Gemini 3, Joe Walker flew the X-15 into space twice, during Flight 90 (19 July 1963) & Flight 91 (22 August 1963). Joe Walker, not Gus Grissom, was the first person to fly in space twice. We deeply regret the error.
Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Flight 91
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "I Believe I Can Fly" from
Take a Break (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)
Semper exploro.
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