19 July 1963: Joe Walker, The First Man in Space Twice
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Walker in a pressure suit with the X-1E.
Image source: Wikipedia
Image source: Wikipedia
Note: I would like to personally point out the exploits of Joe Kittinger, who was actually the first man in space -- from a freekin' hot-air balloon!.
Via Wikipedia.
Joseph Albert "Joe" Walker (20 February 1921 - 8 June 1966) was an American test pilot; in 1963, he made two X-15 flights past the 100 kilometer edge of space, the only spaceplane flights past that threshold made until SpaceShipOne in 2004.More here.
These flights qualified him as an astronaut under both U.S. Air Force and Fédération Aéronautique Internationale rules. Joe Walker was the first person to enter space twice.
posted by Fergie @ 7/19/2006 12:01:00 AM
1 Comments:
Joe Walker also held the altitude record for an air-launched spaceplane flight for 41 years, until Brian Binnie exceeded it on SpaceShip One's third flight in 2004 (which also won the Ansari X-Prize for Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites).
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