Monika Luabeya
Jun 27, 2025
Former NASA astronaut Joe Engle poses in front of an X-15 plane in this Dec. 2, 1965, photo. On June 29, 1965, Engle flew the X-15 to 280,600 feet, becoming the youngest U.S. pilot to qualify as an astronaut.
The Kansas native flew the X-15 for the U.S. Air Force 16 times from 1963 to 1965. Three times Engle flew an X-15 higher than 50 miles (the altitude required for astronaut rating), officially qualifying him for Air Force astronaut wings and providing him a brief moment for sightseeing at the edge of space.
“You could glance out and see the blackness of space above and the extremely bright Earth below. The horizon had the same bands of color you see from the shuttle, with black on top, then purple to deep indigo, then blues and whites,” he said.
Image credit: NASA
