Captain Joe Engle is seen here next to the X-15-2 (56-6671) rocket-powered research aircraft after a flight. (NASA)
WASHINGTON (Tribune News Service) — Joe Engle, the first astronaut to fly into space aboard two different winged vehicles and a test pilot for the shuttle program, has died. He was 91.
Engle’s death was announced by his family in a note his family shared on Facebook.
“Blessed with natural piloting skills, General Joe, as he was known to many, was at his happiest in any cockpit. Always with a smile, he lived a fulfilled life as a proud American, U.S. Air Force pilot, Astronaut, and Kansas Jayhawk. His passing leaves a tremendous loss in our hearts,” the family note said.
Engle qualified for his astronaut wings June 29, 1965, about two months before he turned 33, when as a test pilot for the U.S. Air Force and NASA-run research project, he flew the X-15 fixed-wing rocket plane more than 50 miles above the Earth.
He was the youngest pilot to qualify for his astronaut wings, NASA said.
“I honestly recall that more important than going over the 50 miles was getting as close to (the) planned altitude profile as possible, and I think the fact that it came out very, very close meant more to me, really, than the fact that I’d gone over 50 miles,” Engle said in a 2004 NASA oral history.
Joe Engle was the youngest pilot to qualify for his astronaut wings, NASA said. (NASA)
Engle made 16 flights aboard the X-15, twice more surpassing the 50-mile barrier. He was selected for NASA’s fifth group of astronauts in April 1966, according to collectSPACE, a news publication for space history enthusiasts.
His second winged ride into space was on the space shuttle Columbia. The mission was Columbia’s second orbital test flight, launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
On this flight, Engle became the first and only pilot to manually fly an aerospace vehicle from Mach 25 to landing, NASA said. With Engle at the controls, Columbia landed at Edwards Air Force Base on Nov 14, 1981.
The landing was on the same dry lakebed where Engle earlier had landed the X-15.
Engle’s last trip into space was in 1985 as part of a week-long mission by the space shuttle Discovery.
In total, Engle logged 9 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes while circling Earth 149 times. He is recorded as the sixth person to fly a suborbital flight and 104th to enter orbit in the Association of Space Explorers’ Registry of Space Travelers.
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