X-15 Flight 91 was an August 22, 1963 American crewed mission, and the second and final flight in the program to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight—a flight over 100 km in altitude—which was previously achieved during Flight 90 a month earlier by the same pilot, Joseph A. Walker. It was the highest flight of the X-15 program.
Flight 91 was the first flight of a reused spacecraft, as Walker had also flown plane number three on the previous sub-orbital spaceflight on July 19. The air-launch of Flight 91 occurring from a modified Boeing B-52 Stratofortress support plane over Smith Ranch Dry Lake, Nevada, United States. Walker piloted the X-15 to an altitude of 107.96 km and remained weightless for approximately five minutes. The altitude was the highest crewed flight by a spaceplane to that time, and remained the record until the 1981 flight of Space Shuttle Columbia.
Walker landed the X-15 about 12 minutes after it was launched, at Rogers Dry Lake, Edwards Airforce Base, in California. This was Walker's final X-15 flight.
1963Aug, 22
X-15 Flight 91 reaches the highest altitude of the X-15 program (107.96 km (67.08 mi) (354,200 feet)).
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Events on 1963
- 8Jan
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. - 8Feb
John F. Kennedy
Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration. - 21Apr
Bahá'í Faith
The first election of the Universal House of Justice is held, marking its establishment as the supreme governing institution of the Bahá'í Faith. - 7Oct
Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
John F. Kennedy signs the ratification of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. - 22Nov
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated and Texas Governor John Connally is seriously wounded by Lee Harvey Oswald