On This Day in Space! Aug. 22, 1963: X-15 Sets World Altitude Record - NASA pilot Joe Walker stands beside the X-15 airplane after a flight.JPG

https://www.space.com/39251-on-this-day-in-space.html

On Aug. 22, 1963, U.S. Air Force Captain Joe Walker flew an X-15 rocket plane
higher than any pilot had ever flown before.

Walker reached an altitude of over 67 miles (108 kilometers). That's about 5
miles (8 km) above the edge of space! Walker experienced about five minutes of
weightlessness over the course of the 11-minute flight.

This was the second and final suborbital spaceflight of the X-15 program. Walker
piloted both flights and became the first person to go to space twice. For both
flights, he flew in the space plane X-15 #3, which also became the first reused
spacecraft to return to space.



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