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Neil Armstrong was the first pilot to fly the program's third plane, the X-15-3. Following his participation in the program, Joe Engle commanded a future spaceplane, the Space Shuttle, on two missions. Robert Rushworth flew 34 free flights, the most in the program.
Among these were Neil Armstrong, later a NASA astronaut and the first man to set foot on the Moon, and Joe Engle, later a commander of NASA Space Shuttle missions. In a 1962 proposal, NASA considered using the B-52/X-15 as a launch platform for a Blue Scout rocket to place satellites weighing up to 150 pounds (68 kg) into orbit.
Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who, in 1969, became the first person to walk on the Moon.He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
X-15 Flight 3-65-97, also known as X-15 Flight 191 (being the 191st free flight of the X-15), was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the North American X-15 experimental spaceplane, carrying seven experiments to a peak altitude of 266,000 feet (50.4 mi; 81 km; 43.8 nmi), above NASA's definition of the start of space at 50 miles (80 km) but below the Kármán line definition at 62 miles (100 km).
After the Dyna-Soar program was canceled in December 1963, one F5D-1 stayed on at Armstrong, eventually becoming a flight simulator for the M2-F2, and a chase plane for experimental flights until 1970. In May 1970 one of the aircraft was retired and donated to the Neil Armstrong Air and Space Museum. [27] Douglas X-3 Stiletto. Fixed Wing
Boeing mock-up of X-20 Dyna-Soar. Days after the launch of Sputnik 1 on 4 October 1957, on either October 10 [18] or October 24, [19] the USAF Air Research and Development Command (ARDC) consolidated Hywards, Brass Bell, and Robo studies into the Dyna-Soar project, or Weapons System 464L, with a three-step abbreviated development plan.
The facility took its current name on 1 March 2014, honoring Neil Armstrong, a former test pilot at the center and the first human being to walk on the Moon. [9] [10] AFRC was the home of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), a modified Boeing 747 designed to carry a Space Shuttle orbiter back to Kennedy Space Center if one landed at Edwards.
Neil Armstrong was at one point scheduled to fly the HP.115 as a test pilot in 1962, but after his selection as an astronaut, NASA refused him permission to fly the aircraft. He eventually flew it on 22 June 1970.