The X-15 Rocket Plane: Flying the First Wings Into Space (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781496229847)

With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight.

Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science: how to handle the heat generated at speeds up to Mach 7, how to make a rocket-propulsion system that could throttle, and how to safely reenter the atmosphere from space and make a precision landing.

This book puts a human face on the feats of science and engineering that went into the X-15 program, many of them critical to the development of the space shuttle. And, finally, it introduces us to the largely unsung pilots of the X-15. By the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, thirty-one American astronauts had flown into space--eight of them astronaut-pilots of the X-15. The X-15 Rocket Plane restores these pioneers to their rightful place in the history of spaceflight.


Author: Michelle Evans
ISBN-10: 1496229843
ISBN-13: 9781496229847
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Language: English
Published: 05/01/2022
Pages: 484
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.60lbs
Size: 8.90h x 5.90w x 1.00d