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65 Years Ago: First Factory Rollout of the X-15 Hypersonic Rocket Plane


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On Oct. 15, 1958, the first X-15 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft rolled out of its factory. A joint project among NASA, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Navy, the X-15 greatly expanded our knowledge of flight at speeds exceeding Mach 6 and altitudes above 250,000 feet. Between 1959 and 1968, 12 pilots completed 199 missions, achieving ever-higher speeds and altitudes while gathering data on the aerodynamic and thermal performance of the aircraft flying to the edge of space and beyond and returning to Earth. The X-15 served as a platform for a series of experiments studying the unique hypersonic environment. The program experienced several mishaps and one fatal crash. Knowledge gained during X-15 missions influenced the development of future programs such as the space shuttle.

Rollout of the first X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane North American pilot A. Scott Crossfield poses in front of the X-15-1 Rear view of the X-15-1
Left: Rollout of the first X-15 hypersonic research rocket plane at the North American Aviation facility in Los Angeles. Middle: North American pilot A. Scott Crossfield poses in front of the X-15-1. Right: Rear view of the X-15-1, showing the twin XLR-11 rocket engines used on early test flights.

The origins of the X-15 date to 1952, when the Committee on Aerodynamics of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) adopted a resolution to expand their research portfolio to study flight up to altitudes between 12 and 50 miles and Mach numbers between 4 and 10. The Air Force and Navy agreed and conducted joint feasibility studies at NACA’s field centers. On Dec. 30, 1954, the U.S. Air Force released a Request for Proposals (RPF) for aerospace firms to bid on building the experimental hypersonic aircraft. Four companies submitted proposals with the Air Force selecting North American Aviation, Los Angeles, as the winning bid on Sept. 30, 1955, awarding the contract in November. The Air Force held a separate competition for the aircraft’s XLR-99 rocket engine, a 57,000-pound throttleable single-chamber engine. The process began with release of the RFP on Feb. 4, 1955, and selection in February 1956 of the Reaction Motors Division of Thiokol Chemical Corporation. Delays in the development of the XLR-99 engine required North American to rely on a pair of four-nozzle XLR-11 engines, similar to the one that powered the X-1 on its historic sound-barrier breaking flight in 1947. Providing only 16,000 pounds of thrust, this left the X-15 significantly underpowered for the first 17 months of test flights. On Oct. 1, 1958, the new National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) incorporated the NACA centers and inherited the X-15 project, just two weeks before rollout from the factory of the first flight article.

Crowds gather to admire the first X-15 after its rollout from the North American Aviation plant Workers at Edwards Air Force Base in California lift the first X-15 off its delivery truck
Left: Crowds gather to admire the first X-15 after its rollout from the North American Aviation plant in Los Angeles. Right: Workers at Edwards Air Force Base in California lift the first X-15 off its delivery truck.

On Oct. 15, 1958, the rollout of the first of the three aircraft took place with some fanfare at North American’s Los Angeles facility. Vice President Richard M. Nixon and news media attended the festivities, as did North American X-15 project manager Harrison A. “Stormy” Storms and several of the early X-15 pilots. After the conclusion of the ceremonies, workers wrapped the aircraft, placed it on a flatbed truck, and drove it overnight to the High Speed Flight Station, today NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California’s Mojave Desert. Even before this first aircraft took to the skies, North American rolled out X-15-2 on Feb. 27, 1959. The third aircraft, equipped with the LR-99 engine and a more advanced adaptive flight control system, rounded out the small fleet in 1960.

Diagram showing the two main profiles used by the X-15, either for altitude or speed The twin XLR-11 engines and the more powerful XLR-99 engine used to power the X-15
Left: Diagram showing the two main profiles used by the X-15, either for altitude or speed. Right: The twin XLR-11 engines, left, and the more powerful XLR-99 engine used to power the X-15.

Like earlier X-planes, a carrier aircraft, in this case two modified B-52 Stratofortresses, released the 34,000-pound X-15 at an altitude of 45,000 feet to conserve its fuel for the research mission. Flights took place within the High Range, extending from Wendover AFB in Utah to the Rogers Dry Lake landing zone adjacent to Edwards AFB, with emergency landing zones along the way. Typical missions lasted eight to 12 minutes and followed either a high-altitude or a high-speed profile following launch from the B-52 and ignition of the rocket engine. After burnout of the engine, the pilot guided the aircraft to an unpowered landing on the lakebed runway. To withstand the high temperatures during hypersonic flight and reentry, the X-15’s outer skin consisted of a then-new nickel-chrome alloy called Inconel-X. Because traditional aerodynamic surfaces used for flight control while in the atmosphere do not work in the near vacuum of space, the X-15 used its Ballistic Control System thrusters for attitude control while flying outside the atmosphere. North American pilot A. Scott Crossfield had the primary responsibility for carrying out the initial test flights of the X-15 before handover to NASA and the Air Force.

The first captive flight of the X-15-1 rocket plane takes off under the wing of its B-52 Stratofortress carrier aircraft X-15-1 begins its first unpowered glide flight
Left: With North American Aviation pilot A. Scott Crossfield in the cockpit, the first captive flight of the X-15-1 rocket plane takes off under the wing of its B-52 Stratofortress carrier aircraft. Right: Seconds after release from the B-52, with Crossfield at the controls, the X-15-1 begins its first unpowered glide flight.

With Crossfield at the controls of X-15-1, the first captive flight during which the X-15 remained attached to the B-52’s wing, took place on March 10, 1959. Crossfield completed the first unpowered glide flight of an X-15 on June 8, the flight lasting just five minutes. On Sept. 17, at the controls of X-15-2, Crossfield completed the first powered flight of an X-15, reaching a speed of Mach 2.11 and an altitude of 52,000 feet. Overcoming a few hardware problems, he brought the aircraft to a successful landing after a flight lasting nine minutes. During 12 more flights, Crossfield expanded the aircraft’s flight envelope to Mach 2.97 and 88,116 feet while gathering important data on its flying characteristics. All except his last three flights used the lower thrust LR-11 engines, limiting the aircraft’s speed and altitude. The last three used the powerful LR-99 engine, the one the aircraft was designed for. Crossfield’s 14th flight on Dec. 6, 1960, marked the end of North American’s contracted testing program, turning the X-15 over to the Air Force and NASA.

Chief NASA X-15 pilot Joseph A. “Joe” Walker launches from the B-52 carrier aircraft to begin his first flight Walker following his altitude record-setting flight in 1963 Walker at the controls of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle in 1964
Left: Chief NASA X-15 pilot Joseph A. “Joe” Walker launches from the B-52 carrier aircraft to begin his first flight. Middle: Walker following his altitude record-setting flight in 1963. Right: Walker at the controls of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle in 1964.

On March 25, 1960, NASA’s chief X-15 pilot Joseph A. “Joe” Walker, completed the agency’s first flight aboard X-15-1. Walker, one of five NASA pilots to fly the X-15, completed 25 flights aboard the aircraft. On May 12, 1960, Walker took X-15-1 above Mach 3 for the first time. On two of his flights, Walker exceeded the Von Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space of 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, earning him astronaut wings. On a third flight, he flew above 50 miles, the altitude the Air Force considered the boundary of space. By that standard, 13 flights by eight X-15 pilots qualified them for Air Force astronaut wings. On Walker’s final flight on Aug. 22, 1963, he flew X-15-3 to an altitude of 354,200 feet, or 67.1 miles, the highest achieved in the X-15 program, and a record for piloted aircraft that stood until surpassed during the final flight of SpaceShipOne on Oct. 4, 2004. After leaving the X-15 program, Walker conducted 35 test flights of the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) between 1964 and 1966, the precursor to the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle that Apollo commanders used to simulate the final several hundred feet of the Lunar Module’s descent to the lunar surface. Tragically, Walker died in a mid-air collision on June 8, 1966, when his F-104 Starfighter struck an XB-70 Valkyrie during a demonstration exercise.

NASA X-15 pilot John B. “Jack” McKay poses with X-15-3 after a mission Rollout of X-15A-2 in 1964, repaired and modified following a landing mishap.
Left: NASA X-15 pilot John B. “Jack” McKay poses with X-15-3 after a mission. Middle: Rollout of X-15A-2 in 1964, repaired and modified following a landing mishap.

The second NASA X-15 pilot, John B. “Jack” McKay completed 29 flights, the most of any NASA pilot. He achieved a maximum speed of Mach 5.65 and reached an altitude of 295,600 feet, qualifying him for Air Force astronaut wings. On Nov. 9, 1962, he suffered serious injuries during a landing mishap on his seventh mission but recovered to make 22 more flights. Engineers at North American not only repaired the damaged X-15-2 but redesignated it as X-15A-2. They extended its fuselage by more than two feet and added two external fuel tanks to enable longer engine burns. McKay made another emergency landing on his 25th flight on May 6, 1966, when the X-15-1’s LR-99 engine shut down prematurely. The aircraft did not incur any damage and McKay suffered no injuries.

NASA pilot Neil A. Armstrong stands next to an X-15 Armstrong sits in Gemini VIII prior to liftoff Armstrong in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle following his historic Moon walk
Left: NASA pilot Neil A. Armstrong stands next to an X-15. Middle: Armstrong sits in Gemini VIII prior to liftoff. Right: Armstrong in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle following his historic Moon walk.

Neil A. Armstrong joined NACA as an experimental test pilot in January 1952, and gained experience flying the X-1B supersonic rocket plane. NACA selected him as its third X-15 pilot, and he flew the aircraft seven times. After his first two checkout flights in December 1960, Armstrong spent a year as a consultant on the X-20 Dyna-Soar program before returning to fly his remaining five X-15 missions. Because he helped to develop the adaptive flight control system, on Dec. 20, 1961, Armstrong completed the first flight of X-15-3, rebuilt after an explosion in June 1960 of the LR-99 engine on a test stand destroyed the back of the aircraft. On his sixth flight on April 20, 1962, while trying to maintain a constant g-load during reentry, the aircraft’s attitude caused it to skip out of the atmosphere. This resulted in an overshoot of the landing zone, requiring a high-altitude U-turn, with Armstrong just barely reaching the lakebed runway. Armstrong left the X-15 program when NASA selected him as an astronaut on Sept. 17, 1962. In March 1966, as the Gemini VIII Command Pilot, he executed the first docking in space and then guided the spacecraft back to Earth after the first in-space emergency. On July 20, 1969, during Apollo 11, Armstrong took humanity’s first step on the Moon.

NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson poses in front of X-15-3 Thompson poses in front of the M2-F2 lifting body aircraft after his first flight in 1966
Left: NASA pilot Milton O. Thompson poses in front of X-15-3. Right: Thompson poses in front of the M2-F2 lifting body aircraft after his first flight in 1966.

In June 1963, NASA selected Milton O. “Milt” Thompson as an X-15 pilot, and he completed 14 flights. Although he achieved a maximum speed of Mach 5.48 and reached 214,100 feet, more than half his flights remained at relatively low altitude but high speed to gather data on the effects of high temperatures on the skin of the X-15. Thompson transferred to test fly the experimental M2-F2 lifting body aircraft before giving up flying to manage advanced research projects for NASA, including influencing the design of the space shuttle orbiter. His X-15 experience convinced him that the orbiter did not need jet engines to assist in the landing. Thompson served as the chief engineer at NASA’s Dryden Flight Reseach Center, now Armstrong Flight Research Center, from 1975 until his death in 1993.

NASA pilot William “Bill” Dana poses in front of X-15-3 Dana after the final rocket powered aircraft flight, aboard the X-24B, at Edwards Air Force Base in 1975.
Left: NASA pilot William “Bill” Dana poses in front of X-15-3. Right: Dana after the final rocket powered aircraft flight, aboard the X-24B, at Edwards Air Force Base in 1975.

In May 1965, NASA selected William “Bill” H. Dana, already involved in the program as a chase pilot and simulation engineer, to backfill Thompson as an X-15 pilot. Dana completed 16 flights including what turned out to be the final flight of the X-15 program on Oct. 24, 1968. He reached a maximum speed of Mach 5.53 and an altitude of 306,900 feet, high enough to qualify him for Air Force astronaut wings. With the program sufficiently mature, in addition to gathering flight characteristics data, several experiments flew aboard Dana’s flights. On the last mission, Dana observed a Minuteman missile launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. Following the end of the X-15 program, between April 1969 and December 1972, Dana piloted experimental lifting body aircraft like the HL-10 and M2-F3, and in September 1975, he flew the X-24B twice, including the final flight of a rocket-powered aircraft at Edwards. After test flying other aircraft, he served as Dryden’s chief engineer between 1993 and 1998, taking over from Thompson.

U.S. Air Force pilot Robert M. White after the last flight of an X-15 with the LR-11 engines White inside the X-15 about to launch on the first flight above Mach 6
Left: U.S. Air Force pilot Robert M. White after the last flight of an X-15 with the LR-11 engines. Right: White inside the X-15 about to launch on the first flight above Mach 6.

Five U.S. Air Force and one U.S. Navy pilot made history flying the X-15. The U.S. Air Force selected Iven C. “Kinch” Kincheloe as their first X-15 pilot, but tragically he died in an aircraft accident on July 26, 1958, before making a flight. His backup, Robert M. White, stepped in as the first Air Force pilot to fly the X-15, completing 16 missions. Over the course of these missions, White’s achievements included the first flight of an X-15 above 100,000 feet, then 200,000 feet, and eventually to 314,750 feet. That earned White U.S. Air Force astronaut wings on his July 17, 1962, flight. He also broke speed records, as the first person to fly faster than Mach 4, then Mach 5, and finally reaching Mach 6.04 – more than doubling the speed record in just eight months. After leaving the X-15 program, White flew combat missions in southeast Asia, the only X-15 pilot to see active duty in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He retired as a major general in 1981.

U.S. Navy pilot Forrest S. “Pete” Petersen poses next to an X-15 The B-52 carrier aircraft flies overhead to salute Petersen’s highest and fastest flight
Left: U.S. Navy pilot Forrest S. “Pete” Petersen poses next to an X-15. Right: The B-52 carrier aircraft flies overhead to salute Petersen’s highest and fastest flight.

Air Force pilot Robert A. Rushworth following a flight aboard X-15-3 photograph of two B-52s preparing to launch two X-15s in November 1960
Left: Air Force pilot Robert A. Rushworth following a flight aboard X-15-3. Right: Unusual photograph of two B-52s preparing to launch two X-15s in November 1960 – X-15-1 prepares to taxi for Rushworth’s first flight, left, and X-15-2 for A. Scott Crossfield and the first flight of the XLR-99 rocket engine. Image credit: courtesy mach25media.com.

The pilot with the most X-15 missions, the Air Force’s Robert A. Rushworth completed 34 flights. For the first time, flight surgeons could monitor a pilot’s electrocardiogram in real time thanks to a new biomonitoring system and did so during Rushworth’s seventh flight. On his 14th flight, Rushworth reached an altitude of 285,000 feet, high enough to earn him U.S. Air Force astronaut wings. Rushworth flew his fastest flight on Dec. 5, 1963, when he reached a top speed of Mach 6.06. On June 25, on his 21st mission, Rushworth completed the first flight of X-15A-2, rebuilt and upgraded following its November 1962 crash. He piloted it to Mach 4.59, the first time the aircraft flew faster than Mach 4. On his next flight, he took the aircraft past Mach 5. On his 34th and final mission, Rushworth tested one of the significant upgrades to X-15A-2, the addition of disposable external fuel and oxidizer tanks to increase the rocket engine’s burn time. He encountered some difficulties when he jettisoned the tanks at the half-full stage, a condition that planners had not anticipated, but successfully landed the aircraft. As previously planned, Rushworth left the X-15 program five days later, attending the National War College before flying 189 combat missions in Vietnam. He retired as a major general in 1981.

Air Force pilot Joe H. Engle following a flight aboard X-15A-2 NASA astronaut Engle poses in front of space shuttle Enterprise during its first rollout in 1976 Engle during Columbia’s STS-2 mission in November 198
Left: Air Force pilot Joe H. Engle following a flight aboard X-15A-2. Middle: NASA astronaut Engle poses in front of space shuttle Enterprise during its first rollout in 1976. Right: Engle during Columbia’s STS-2 mission in November 1981.

Air Force pilot Joe H. Engle joined the X-15 program in June 1963, completing 16 missions. He achieved his highest speed, Mach 5.71, on his 10th flight, and earned his U.S. Air Force astronaut wings at 33 years of age, the youngest X-15 pilot to do so, on his 14th flight. Within less than four months, Engle surpassed the 50-mile mark two more times on his final two X-15 flights in August and October 1965. Engle left the X-15 program when NASA selected him as an astronaut on April 4, 1966. Putting his X-15 experience to good use, he commanded two of the five Approach and Landing Tests with space shuttle Enterprise in 1977. In 1982, he commanded STS-2, the second orbital flight of Columbia, and in 1985 he commanded STS-51I, the sixth flight of Discovery. Comparing the X-15 and the space shuttle, the only person to have piloted both said, “From a pilot-task standpoint, the entry and landing are very similar, performance wise. You fly roughly the same glide speed and the same glide slope angle. The float and touchdown were very similar.” Engle retired from NASA and the Air Force as a major general in 1986 but remained active in an advisory capacity into the 2010s.

Air Force pilot William J. “Pete” Knight poses with X-15A-2 with its unusual white outer paint over an ablative coating Knight, right, following his speed record-setting flight in October 1967
Left: Air Force pilot William J. “Pete” Knight poses with X-15A-2 with its unusual white outer paint over an ablative coating. Right: Knight, right, following his speed record-setting flight in October 1967.

The Air Force selected William J. “Pete” Knight as an X-15 pilot in 1965, and he completed 16 flights in two years. On his eighth flight on Nov. 18, 1966, Knight took X-15A-2 to above Mach 6, with the fully fueled external tanks operating as expected. In an attempt to protect the X-15’s skin during sustained flight at Mach 6, or proposed future flights at Mach 7 and 8, engineers coated X-15A-2 with an ablative material. Since the color of the material resembled the pink of a pencil eraser, workers painted it a gleaming white. On Oct. 3, 1967, Knight flew X-15A-2, with fully fueled external tanks, to an unofficial speed record of Mach 6.70, or 4,520 miles per hour, for a piloted winged vehicle. The mark stood until surpassed during the reentry of space shuttle Columbia on April 14, 1981. While the flight appeared to have gone well, hypersonic shock waves, especially around a model scramjet attached to the bottom rear of the aircraft, caused such heating that it burned through the ablative material, exposing the skin of the aircraft to 2,400 degrees, twice its design limit. Postflight inspection revealed significant damage to the aircraft that would have ended catastrophically had the heating continued for a few more seconds. A previous flight to Mach 6.33 showed similar, although less, severe damage, but engineers did not consider it as a warning sign. Due to the damage, X-15A-2 never flew again. In 2003, space shuttle Columbia suffered similar burn, caused by damage to its thermal protection system, leading to loss of the vehicle and its seven-member crew. When the X-15 program ended at the end of 1968, Knight returned to active duty, flying 253 combat missions in Vietnam in 1969 and 1970. He eventually returned to Edwards as its vice commander before retiring in 1982 and entering politics.

Michael J. Adams, left, selected in the first group of astronauts for the U.S. Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory in 1965 Adams following a mission aboard X-15-1
Left: Michael J. Adams, left, selected in the first group of astronauts for the U.S. Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory in 1965. Right: Adams following a mission aboard X-15-1.

The U.S. Air Force first selected Michael J. Adams as an astronaut for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program in November 1965 before transferring him to the X-15 program in July 1966 as its 12th and final pilot. He flew the X-15 seven times and on his third flight reached his highest speed of Mach 5.59. Adams took off on his seventh flight on Nov. 15, 1967, a mission using X-15-3 with its advanced flight control system, to reach 250,000 feet and Mach 6 to conduct several experiments. After overshooting to a peak altitude of 266,000 feet and beginning the descent but sill well outside the atmosphere, the X-15-3 entered into a hypersonic spin traveling at more than 3,000 miles per hour, at one point flying tail first. Adams and the aircraft’s systems recovered from the spin, but now the aircraft began serious pitch oscillations as it continued to fall. At 62,000 feet, the g-loads from the oscillations overcame the structural limits of the aircraft and it broke apart. The X-15-3 crashed, killing Adams. The accident investigation identified proximate causes as a short-circuit from one of the experiments that had not been tested at low atmospheric pressures or high temperatures, causing both the aircraft’s computer and its flight control system to repeatedly fail. Adams became distracted and did not realize his aircraft’s attitude was increasingly off nominal. In addition, an attitude indicator switch had been set at the wrong setting, providing Adams with confusing information. Telemetry to the ground did not include attitude information, so controllers did not know the problems Adams faced and could not provide any helpful direction. Adams may have suffered from vertigo, a condition for which he had previously tested positive, a fact not known to his flight surgeon. Two major changes from the accident included adding attitude information to the telemetry and ensuring that all pilots received thorough vestibular screening to identify cases of vertigo. With the loss of X-15-3 and the retirement of the damaged X-15A-2 following Knight’s October flight, only one aircraft, the original X-15-1, remained to close out the program until funding ran out in December 1968. The Air Force posthumously honored Adams with astronaut wings.

The Edwards Air Force Base ground crew poses in front of the B-52 with X-15-1 mounted under its wing during a rare snowstorm that thwarted a final attempt at a 200th flight
The Edwards Air Force Base ground crew poses in front of the B-52 with X-15-1 mounted under its wing during a rare snowstorm that thwarted a final attempt at a 200th flight.

NASA pilot Dana flew what turned out to be the 199th and final X-15 mission on Oct. 24, 1968. Managers tried to fly a 200th mission before funding ran out on Dec. 31. Eight attempts between Nov. 27 and Dec. 20 for Air Force pilot Knight to take X-15-1 on a final mission failed for a variety of reasons. Due to the delays, the initial mission plan of flying to 250,000 feet at Mach 4.9 in an attempt to visualize a missile launch from Vandenberg AFB had to change to a more modest altitude goal of 162,000 feet and reduced speed of Mach 3.9 to test a new experiment. On Dec. 20, with Knight suited up and ready to board the X-15, a rare snowstorm put an end to any plans to fly, and so the program ended. The next morning, on the other side of the continent, a Saturn V lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to take Apollo 8 astronauts on the first voyage to the Moon. Seven months later, former NASA X-15 pilot Armstrong took humanity’s first steps on the Moon.

Summary of X-15 pilots’ accomplishments.
Summary of X-15 pilots’ accomplishments.

A grateful nation recognized the accomplishments of the X-15 pilots. On Nov. 28, 1961, in a White House ceremony President John F. Kennedy presented Crossfield, Walker, and White with the Harmon International Trophy for Aviators. On July 18, 1962, President Kennedy presented the prestigious Robert J. Collier Trophy to Crossfield, Walker, White, and Petersen for their pioneering hypersonic flights. On Dec. 3, 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the Harmon Trophy to Knight for his Mach 6.70 record-setting flight.

President John F. Kennedy, left, presents the Harmon Trophy to X-15 pilots A. Scott Crossfield of North American Aviation, Joseph A. Walker of NASA, and Robert White of the U.S. Air Force President Kennedy presents the Collier Trophy to X-15 pilots Crossfield, White, Walker, and Forrest S. Petersen of the U.S. Navy President Lyndon B. Johnson presents the Harmon Trophy to U.S. Air Force X-15 pilot William J. “Pete” Knight
Left: President John F. Kennedy, left, presents the Harmon Trophy to X-15 pilots A. Scott Crossfield of North American Aviation, Joseph A. Walker of NASA, and Robert White of the U.S. Air Force. Middle: President Kennedy presents the Collier Trophy to X-15 pilots Crossfield, White, Walker, and Forrest S. Petersen of the U.S. Navy. Right: President Lyndon B. Johnson presents the Harmon Trophy to U.S. Air Force X-15 pilot William J. “Pete” Knight.

The X-15-1 as it looked in the Milestones of Flight exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C The X-15A-2 on display at the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), in Dayton, Ohio A replica of the X-15-3 as it looked on display in 1997 outside the entrance to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB.
Left: The X-15-1 as it looked in the Milestones of Flight exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Image credit: courtesy National Air and Space Museum. Middle: The X-15A-2 on display at the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (AFB), in Dayton, Ohio. Image credit: courtesy National Museum of the Air Force. Right: A replica of the X-15-3 as it looked on display in 1997 outside the entrance to NASA’s Dryden, now Armstrong, Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB.

Following the end of the program, the two surviving X-15 aircraft found permanent homes in prestigious museums. The X-15-1 arrived at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in June 1969. When the new National Air and Space Museum opened in July 1976, the X-15-1 found a place of prominence in the Milestones of Flight exhibit. In 2019, curators placed it in temporary storage while the museum undergoes a major renovation. The X-15A-2 went on display at the Air Force Museum, now the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson AFB, in Dayton, Ohio, where it still resides. Although the third aircraft was lost in a crash, North American built replica of X-15-3 that was mounted outside the entrance to Dryden in 1995. Damage from winds required its removal and refurbishment, and it is currently in storage at Armstrong.

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      Sonam Tshering, a student who completed two DEVELOP projects on Bhutanese agriculture while studying at the University of Texas at El Paso, was able to share the value of these efforts at the 2023 United Nations Climate Conference. “By applying satellite data from NASA, we aimed to create actionable insights for our local farmers and our policymakers back in Bhutan,” she said. 
      News Media Contact
      Lane Figueroa
      Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
      256.544.0034
      lane.e.figueroa@nasa.gov 
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      Last Updated Nov 04, 2024 Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      On Nov. 3, 1994, space shuttle Atlantis took to the skies on its 13th trip into space. During the 11-day mission, the STS-66 crew of Commander Donald R. McMonagle, Pilot Curtis L. Brown, Payload Commander Ellen Ochoa, and Mission Specialists Joseph R. Tanner, Scott E. Parazynski, and French astronaut Jean-François Clervoy representing the European Space Agency (ESA) operated the third Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Sciences (ATLAS-3), and deployed and retrieved the U.S.-German Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere-Shuttle Pallet Satellite (CRISTA-SPAS), as part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth. The remote sensing instruments studied the Sun’s energy output, the atmosphere’s chemical composition, and how these affect global ozone levels, adding to the knowledge gained during the ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 missions.

      Left: Official photo of the STS-68 crew of Jean-François Clervoy, left, Scott E. Parazynski, Curtis L. Brown, Joseph R. Tanner, Donald R. McMonagle, and Ellen Ochoa. Middle: The STS-66 crew patch. Right: The ATLAS-3 payload patch.
      In August 1993, NASA named Ochoa as the ATLAS-3 payload commander, and in January 1994, named the rest of the STS-66 crew. For McMonagle, selected as an astronaut in 1987, ATLAS-3 marked his third trip into space, having flown on STS-39 and STS-54. Brown, also from the class of 1987, previously flew on STS 47, while Ochoa, selected in 1990, flew as a mission specialist on STS-56, the ATLAS-2 mission. For Tanner, Parazynski, and Clervoy, all from the Class of 1992 – the French space agency CNES previously selected Clervoy as one of its astronauts in 1985 before he joined the ESA astronaut cadre in 1992 – STS-66 marked their first spaceflight.

      Left: Schematic illustration of ATLAS-3 and its instruments. Right: Schematic illustration of CRISTA-SPAS retrievable satellite and its instruments.
      The ATLAS-3 payload consisted of six instruments on a Spacelab pallet and one mounted on the payload bay sidewall. The pallet mounted instruments included Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS), Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS), Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM), Measurement of the Solar Constant (SOLCON), Solar Spectrum Measurement from 1,800 to 3,200 nanometers (SOLSCAN), and Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM).
      The Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SSBUV) instrument constituted the payload bay sidewall mounted experiment. While the instruments previously flew on the ATLAS-1 and ATLAS-2 missions, both those flights took place during the northern hemisphere spring. Data from the ATLAS-3’s mission in the fall complemented results from the earlier missions. The CRISTA-SPAS satellite included two instruments, the CRISTA and the Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation (MAHRSI).

      Left: Space shuttle Atlantis at Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Middle: Liftoff of Atlantis on STS-66. Right: Atlantis rises into the sky.
      Following its previous flight, STS-46 in August 1992, Atlantis spent one and a half years at the Rockwell plant in Palmdale, California, undergoing major modifications before arriving back at KSC on May 29, 1994. During the modification period, workers installed cables and wiring for a docking system for Atlantis to use during the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission in 1995 and equipment to allow it to fly Extended Duration Orbiter missions of two weeks or longer. Atlantis also underwent structural inspections and systems upgrades including improved nose wheel steering and a new reusable drag chute. Workers in KSC’s Orbiter Processing Facility installed the ATLAS-3 and CRISTA-SPAS payloads and rolled Atlantis over to the Vehicle Assembly Building on Oct. 4 for mating with its External Tank and Solid Rocket Boosters. Atlantis rolled out to Launch Pad 39B six days later. The six-person STS-66 crew traveled to KSC to participate in the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, essentially a dress rehearsal for the launch countdown, on Oct. 18.
      They returned to KSC on Oct. 31, the same day the final countdown began. Following a smooth countdown leading to a planned 11:56 a.m. EST liftoff on Nov. 3, 1994, Atlantis took off three minutes late, the delay resulting from high winds at one of the Transatlantic Abort sites. The liftoff marked the third shuttle launch in 55 days, missing a record set in 1985 by one day. Eight and a half minutes later, Atlantis delivered its crew and payloads to space. Thirty minutes later, a firing of the shuttle’s Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) engines placed them in a 190-mile orbit inclined 57 degrees to the equator. The astronauts opened the payload bay doors, deploying the shuttle’s radiators, and removed their bulky launch and entry suits, stowing them for the remainder of the flight.

      Left: Atlantis’ payload bay, showing the ATLAS-3 payload and the CRISTA-SPAS deployable satellite behind it. Middle: European Space Agency astronaut Jean-François Clervoy uses the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System (RMS) to grapple the CRISTA-SPAS prior to its release. Right: Clervoy about to release CRISTA-SPAS from the RMS.
      The astronauts began to convert their vehicle into a science platform, and that included breaking up into two teams to enable 24-hour-a-day operations. McMonagle, Ochoa, and Tanner made up the Red Team while Brown, Parazynski, and Clervoy made up the Blue Team. Within five hours of liftoff, the Blue Team began their sleep period while the Red Team started their first on orbit shift by activating the ATLAS-3 instruments, the CRISTA-SPAS deployable satellite, and the Remote Manipulator System (RMS) or robotic arm in the payload bay and some of the middeck experiments. The next day, Clervoy, operating the RMS, grappled CRISTA-SPAS, lifted it from its cradle in the payload bay, and while Atlantis flew over Germany, deployed it for its eight-day free flight. McMonagle fired Atlantis’ thrusters to separate from the satellite.

      Left: Ellen Ochoa and Donald R. McMonagle on the shuttle’s flight deck. Middle: European Space Agency astronaut Jean-François Clervoy in the commander’s seat during the mission. Right: Scott E. Parazynski operates a protein crystallization experiment in the shuttle middeck.

      Left: Joseph R. Tanner operates a protein crystallization experiment. Middle: Curtis L. Brown operates a microgravity acceleration measurement system. Right: Ellen Ochoa uses the shuttle’s Remote Manipulator System to grapple CRISTA-SPAS following its eight-day free flight.
      For the next eight days, the two teams of astronauts continued work with the ATLAS instruments and several middeck and payload bay experiments such as protein crystal growth, measuring the shuttle microgravity acceleration environment, evaluating heat pipe performance, and a student experiment to study the Sun that complemented the ATLAS instruments. On November 12, the mission’s 10th day, the astronauts prepared to retrieve the CRISTA-SPAS satellite. For the retrieval, McMonagle and Brown used a novel rendezvous profile unlike previous ones used in the shuttle program. Instead of making the final approach from in front of the satellite, called the V-bar approach, Atlantis approached from below in the so-called R-bar approach. This is the profile Atlantis planned to use on its next mission, the first rendezvous and docking with the Mir space station. It not only saved fuel but also prevented contamination of the station’s delicate sensors and solar arrays. Once within 40 feet of CRISTA-SPAS, Ochoa reached out with the RMS, grappled the satellite, and then berthed it back in the payload bay.

      A selection from the 6,000 STS-66 crew Earth observation photographs. Left: Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Middle left: Hurricane Florence in the North Atlantic. Middle right: The Ganges River delta. Right: The Sakurajima Volcano in southern Japan.
      As a Mission to Planet Earth, the STS-66 astronauts spent considerable time looking out the window, capturing 6,000 images of their home world. Their high inclination orbit enabled views of parts of the planet not seen during typical shuttle missions.

      Left: The inflight STS-66 crew photo. Right: Donald R. McMonagle, left, and Curtis R. Brown prepare for Atlantis’ deorbit and reentry.
      On flight day 11, with most of the onboard film exposed and consumables running low, the astronauts prepared for their return to Earth the following day. McMonagle and Brown tested Atlantis’ reaction control system thrusters and aerodynamic surfaces in preparation for deorbit and descent through the atmosphere, while the rest of the crew busied themselves with shutting down experiments and stowing away unneeded equipment.

      Left: Atlantis makes a perfect touchdown at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. Middle: Atlantis deploys the first reusable space shuttle drag chute. Right: Mounted atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, Atlantis departs Edwards for the cross-country trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
      On Nov. 14, the astronauts closed Atlantis’ payload bay doors, donned their launch and entry suits, and strapped themselves into their seats for entry and landing. Tropical Storm Gordon near the KSC primary landing site forced a diversion to Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California. The crew fired Atlantis’ OMS engines to drop out of orbit. McMonagle piloted Atlantis to a smooth landing at Edwards, ending the 10-day 22-hour 34-minute flight, Atlantis’ longest flight up to that time. The crew had orbited the Earth 174 times. Workers at Edwards safed the vehicle and placed it atop a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft for the ferry flight back to KSC. The duo left Edwards on Nov. 21, and after stops at Kelly Field in San Antonio and Eglin AFB in the Florida panhandle, arrived at KSC the next day. Workers there began preparing Atlantis for its next flight, STS-71 in June 1995, the first Shuttle-Mir docking mission. Meanwhile, a Gulfstream jet flew the astronauts back to Ellington Field in Houston for reunions with their families. As it turned out, STS-66 flew Atlantis’ last solo flight until STS-125 in 2009, the final Hubble Servicing Mission. The 16 intervening flights, and the three that followed, all docked with either Mir or the International Space Station.
      “The mission not only met all our expectations, but all our hopes and dreams as well,” said Mission Scientist Timothy L. Miller of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. “One of its high points was our ability to receive and process so much data in real time, enhancing our ability to carry out some new and unprecedented cooperative experiments.” McMonagle said of STS-66, “We are very proud of the mission we have just accomplished. If there’s any one thing we all have an interest in, it’s the health of our planet.”
      Enjoy the crew narrate a video about the STS-66 mission.
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      Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater)
      European company apetito uses Neurala’s vision inspection software to ensure the quality of its prepared meals, such as green bean portions pictured here. The software evolved from code Neurala was developing more than a decade ago, with NASA funding, for a rover that could independently learn to traverse Martian terrain. Credit: Neurala Inc. Artificial intelligence software initially designed to learn and analyze Martian terrain is now at the heart of a system to monitor assembly lines on Earth. 

      The vision inspection software from Neurala Inc., an artificial intelligence company in Boston, Massachusetts, works with existing cameras, computers, and even cellphones to monitor the quality of products running along a conveyor belt, for instance.  

      “Our software can learn very quickly on a processor with a very small footprint, a skill we learned working with NASA,” said Neurala cofounder and CEO Massimiliano Versace. “By doing so, we enable vision inspection with whatever components are already available, deploying in minutes. In our exploration of the market, we realized that the manufacturing space had a precise need for this technology.”

      Versace and Neurala (Spinoff 2018) began working with NASA more than a decade ago on a project funded through the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. NASA was interested in “adaptive bio-inspired navigation for planetary exploration,” and Versace and his team had been working on neural network AI software modeled on the human brain. 
      Focusing on a rover concept that could independently learn to traverse Martian terrain, Neurala went on to win STTR Phase II funding for the project. Additional money from a NASA Center Innovation Fund enabled the Neurala team to adapt its technology to drone navigation and collision avoidance. 

      In both the rover and the drone applications, the Neurala software could run on a small device on the vehicle itself, eliminating the delay of sending signals to a decision maker in another location. Since then, the company developed the software to help monitor assembly lines.

      Onsite computing is an advantage in manufacturing, as well, where an assembly line may have a hundred items passing every minute, making visual inspections for quality control difficult.
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      Last Updated Nov 01, 2024 Related Terms
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    • By NASA
      5 min read
      30 Years On, NASA’s Wind Is a Windfall for Studying our Neighborhood in Space
      An artist’s concept of NASA’s Wind spacecraft outside of Earth’s magnetosphere. NASA Picture it: 1994. The first World Wide Web conference took place in Geneva, the first Chunnel train traveled under the English Channel, and just three years after the end of the Cold War, the first Russian instrument on a U.S. spacecraft launched into deep space from Cape Canaveral. The mission to study the solar wind, aptly named Wind, held promise for heliophysicists and astrophysicists around the world to investigate basic plasma processes in the solar wind barreling toward Earth —key information for helping us understand and potentially mitigate the space weather environment surrounding our home planet.
      Thirty years later, Wind continues to deliver on that promise from about a million miles away at the first Earth-Sun Lagrange Point (L1). This location is gravitationally balanced between Earth and the Sun, providing excellent fuel economy that requires mere puffs of thrust to stay in place.
      According to Lynn Wilson, who is the Wind project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, fuel is only one indicator of Wind’s life expectancy, however. “Based on fuel alone, Wind can continue flying until 2074,” he said. “On the other hand, its ability to return data hinges on the last surviving digital tape recorder onboard.” 
      An artist’s concept shows a closeup of the Wind spacecraft. NASA Wind launched with two digital tape recorders to record data from all the instruments on the spacecraft and provide reports on the spacecraft’s thermal conditions, orientation, and overall health. Each recorder has two tape decks, A and B, which Wilson affectionately refers to as “fancy eight-tracks.”
      After six years of service, the first digital tape recorder failed in 2000 along with its two tape decks, forcing mission operators to switch to the second one. Tape Deck A on that one started showing signs of wear in 2016, so the mission operators now use Tape Deck B as the primary deck, with A as a backup.  
      “They built redundancy into the digital tape recorder system by building two of them, but you can never predict how technology will perform when it’s a million miles away, bathing in ionizing radiation,” said Wilson. “We’re fortunate that after 30 years, we still have two functioning tape decks.”
      Wind launched on Nov. 1, 1994, on a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA Bonus Science
      When Wind launched on Nov. 1, 1994, nobody could have possibly predicted that exactly 30 years later, NASA would be kicking off “Bonus Science” month in the Heliophysics Big Year. Beyond the mission’s incredible track record of mesmerizing discoveries about the solar wind — some detailed on its 25th anniversary — Wind continues to deliver with bonus science abound.
      Opportunity and Collaborative Discovery
      Along its circuitous journey to L1, Wind dipped in and out of Earth’s magnetosphere more than 65 times, capturing the largest whistler wave — a low-frequency radio wave racing across Earth’s magnetic field — ever recorded in Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts. Wind also traveled ahead of and behind Earth — about 150 times our planet’s diameter in both directions, informing potential future missions that would operate in those areas with extreme exposure to the solar wind. It even took a side quest to the Moon, cruising through the lunar wake, a shadow devoid of solar wind on the far side of the Moon.
      Later, from its permanent home at L1, Wind was among several corroborating spacecraft that helped confirm what scientists believe is the brightest gamma-ray burst to occur since the dawn of human civilization. The burst, GRB 221009A, was first detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope in October 2022. Although not in its primary science objectives, Wind carries two bonus instruments designed to observe gamma-ray bursts that helped scientists confirm the burst’s origin in the Sagitta constellation.
      Academic Inspiration
      More than 7,200 research papers have been published using Wind data, and the mission has supported more than 100 graduate and post-graduate degrees.
      Wilson was one of those degree candidates. When Wind launched, Wilson was in sixth grade, on the football, baseball, and wrestling teams, with spare time spent playing video games and reading science fiction. He had a knack for science and considered becoming a medical doctor or an engineer before committing to his love of physics, which ultimately led to his current position as Wind’s project scientist. While pursuing his doctorate, he worked with Adam Szabo who was the Wind project scientist at NASA Goddard at the time and used Wind data to study interplanetary collisionless shock waves. Szabo eventually hired Wilson to work on the Wind mission team at Goddard.
      Also in sixth grade at the time, Joe Westlake, NASA Heliophysics division director,was into soccer and music, and was a voracious reader consumed with Tolkein’s stories about Middle Earth. Now he leads the NASA office that manages Wind.
      “It’s amazing to think that Lynn Wilson and I were in middle school, and the original mission designers and scientists have long since retired,” said Westlake. “When a mission makes it to 30 years, you can’t help but be inspired by the role it has played not only in scientific discovery, but in the careers of multiple generations of scientists.”
      By Erin Mahoney
      NASA Headquarters, Washington
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    • By NASA
      Dr. Eugene Tu, center director at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, presents Representative Anna Eshoo with a replica of the Pioneer plaque during a recognition event for her 32 years of public service.NASA/Brandon Torres Navarrete On Oct. 29, NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley hosted a gathering to recognize Representative Anna G. Eshoo for her 32 years of distinguished public service and her enduring support for the agency. During the event, Dr. Eugene Tu, center director at Ames, presented the Congresswoman with the Pioneer plaque, a replica of the messages sent on the Pioneer 10 and 11 probes, which launched in 1972 and 1973 respectively.
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