@@IkanSalai21It wasn’t a jet. The plane is rocket powered. The only reason he reached space was because it didn’t need air to run the engine. Jets can’t make it anywhere close to space.
That flight, X-15 Flight 90, was launched on July 19, 1963 and piloted by Captain Joseph A. Walker. The highest altitude achieved in that flight was 106 kilometers, making it 6 kilometers above the international "edge of space" known as the Karman Line. While he did reach space, he was most certainly not the first US Citizen to go to space as that achievement had already been made by Alan Shepard on May 5, 1961 when his Mercury-Redstone launch vehicle took him to an altitude of 187 kilometers. In the roster of people who've gone to space, Capt. Joe Walker is #13, right after Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova only a month prior.
@@kjinhayabusa Yes, they did return to Earth after their respective spaceflights. Rear Admiral Alan B. Shepard Jr. would later be diagnosed with Meniere's Disease and removed from flight status, and was soon made Chief of the Astronaut Office and put in charge of training astronauts and astronaut candidates. Later he underwent a surgical procedure that would cure his Meniere's Disease and was returned to flight status. He was originally scheduled to be commander of Apollo 13 but due to the crew being unfamiliar with the Apollo spacecraft and their operation, they were rescheduled to fly Apollo 14, luckily for them. On February 5th, 1971, he became the fifth person, the oldest person (at 47), and the only one of the original Mercury 7 astronauts to walk on the Moon. He died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia on July 21st, 1998 at the age of 74. His daughter, Laura Shepard Churchley, also flew to space on December 11th, 2021 on Blue Origin's NS-19 mission. Captain Joseph Walker would go on to be the first test pilot on the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle project made to train astronauts on the flight dynamics of the later Apollo Lunar Excursion Module. On June 8th, 1966 Cpt. Walker was in a close formation flight with the experimental prototype XB-70 Valkyrie supersonic strategic bomber when his F-104N Starfighter collided with the right wingtip of the Valkyrie, causing his aircraft to roll up, over, and down into the left wing and vertical stabilizers. Soon after, the XB-70 entered an unrecoverable spin and crashed, killing the co-pilot of the Valkyrie. At only 45 years of age, Captain Walker died when his aircraft collided with the left wing of the Valkyrie and exploded, likely killing him instantly.
The first US citizen to go to space was Alan Sheppard (1961). The aircraft you are refering to is the X-15 (and there were 8 flights of that plane which reached space and they were intentional). Sometimes factchecking is a good practice...
Flight 90 of the North American X-15 was a research flight conducted by NASA and the US Air Force on July 19, 1963. It was the first of two X-15 missions that passed the 100-km high Kármán line, the FAI definition of space, along with Flight 91 the next month. The X-15 was flown by Joseph A. Walker, who flew both X-15 spaceflights over the Kármán line.
If ur wondering who was the pilot it was (yury gargary) fun fact: he died at a young age (34) how did he die, he died when he crashed his jet with his friend. Hope this helps.
It was a test plane ran by the USAF and NASA to test flights at extreme altitudes and speeds. The data it gathered helped develop the first American spaceship the mercury capsule. Once NASA had flown a few mercury flights they became interested in developing a reusable space plane. Since the X-15 was capable of flying into space ( not into orbit) they used it to get some data on it. The data was important to the development of the space shuttle.
@@Berkcamwell actually that is possible there is still gravity in space just very little if u were to fly straight up into space u would be pulled back by gravity slowly rockets are launched straight but slowly angle to a 45 degree angle before leveling the atmosphere and level out to nice it has enough momentum to stay on n orbit satellites are actually moving around 11,000 miles per hour that’s how fast they need to be in orbit and also they need to be a certain distance away from the atmosphere. This pilot on the other hand only left about a few 1000 ft outside of the atmosphere at Mach 5 which came down after a short period of time. If there was no gravity in space the moon wouldn’t be circulating the earth it would of just flown right past.
You won't float forever if you just went into space. Even at an altitude of 400 km (iss) you are still bound to about 90% of earth's gravity. In the ISS astronauts experience microgravity ("weightlessness") because they are falling around earth. If a rocket would go straight up for even 800 km above earth, it would still fall down. Thats why a rockets trajectory isn't straight up but to the side, so it has a speed fast enough it is falling to the earth but falls around the curve at all times.
nah bro i was just flying casually then i literally flew to all the planets stephson saw sagittarius A and tom 618 and i hate it when that happens😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
NASA: Spent billions to build a rocket powerful enough to escape the Earth's gravity This boi: all you need is to fly up Edit: Thank you so much for the likes everyone! For years of commenting here in RU-vid this is actually the first and my only comment that got this much likes.
Its a rocket plane that goes 7 times the speed of sound and needed to be launched from a b52 and if it failed you died they wore space suits inside it and it had reaction controls it also costs hundreds of millions and can’t get close to orbit
The plane is an X-15, experimental to see how fast a single manned aircraft could go, they put it on the bottom of a B52A and dropped it mid air, and because of the added altitude form the launch in helped it get lift and go into space, amazing story though
Yeah I feel like the x-15 will do that has the record of being the fastest jet in the world I think it holds some sort of record of being fastest went nine times the speed of sound
@nikolajdrost6946 can u imagine not having any form of maneuverability, because there is no way conventional steering from wing flaps can work in a place with no air or medium and you just accelerate into the void of space forever or until something hits you or u hit something
@@story8295see I was hoping the video would elaborate because I was wondering if they were still able to breathe for that time or what? But from what you're saying it sounds like he wasn't able to breathe? Or did I read that wrong, I'm truly curious
@mialoak810 I'm saying that he was on the verge of entering space, while the exosphere is not technically space, there still wouldn't be enough air for him to survive, but for the x-15 to go at high altitudes is that it would be allow to achieve mach 5, but to go at high altitudes means that the cabin he is in needs to pressurize so technically he is not really going to run out of air it's just that as soon as he enters space a lot of complications can happen to the aircraft as it was not really designed for space but for high altitude and high speed testing, also maybe he will suffocate because I'm gonna assume that the x15 doesn't store oxygen but compresses from the outside and pushes it into the cabin for pressurization
Imagine the radio calls to the people on the ground: “Hey captain, i have some good news and some bad news” “Ok, let me hear the good news” “I am the first U.S civilian to be in space” “….” “The bad news is, i am the first U.S civilian to be in space”
On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American in space. He flew on a Mercury spacecraft. There was just enough room for one person. He named his capsule Freedom 7. It launched on a Redstone rocket. The Army first used the Redstone as a missile. On this flight, Shepard did not orbit Earth. He flew 116 miles high. Then he came back down. The flight lasted about 15 ½ minutes. The mission was a success.
If the creator of this tidbit of history already knew Alan Shepard was the first American in space, then he's imprecise in his public reporting and expressing himself. Once there was a time when this was not a good quality to have for aspiring reporters or journalists. If he was ignorant of this fact and failed to discover it, then he's not only exposing his ignorance, but his laziness. Even the minimum amount of on-line research would have prevented this error. However, he has nothing to fear. Modern media companies don't seem to care anything about the intelligence, accuracy, work ethic, or ethics in general possessed by the people they hire.
"guys tell your best accidental discoveries I once found a sparkling spring in the middle of the desert" "I saw a tiny shark in a pond" "I once accidentally flew to space" "noice"
I've always wondered why we don't just build large jets like this to go to space rather than the outdated ground launch rocket system we still use today. (Edit) haven't been on RU-vid in a while so didn't see the replies but if you're attempting to insult me you didn't understand what I said. Different fuels are used outside of our atmosphere so you don't need air like you all keep saying the oxygen is in the fuel haha.
I'm absolutely no expert, but my guess is that our rockets are made with the (fire?) Resistant pannels, specifically for entering and exiting the atmosphere. That pilot was likely in space for a few minutes, while rockets are generally floating up there for much longer. The proper equipment, and living space likely requires the type of rocket we use today, rather than an ordinary fighter jet
I not quite sure what you had in mind but I'll just reel off stuff. Jets need air to work, rockets use an oxidizer stored in a tank instead, there are works on jet engines that can transition to using oxidizer mid flight though. Plane like aircraft, even the x-15 are nowhere even close to getting to orbit, the amount of speed required is beyond anything that any jet or even rocket propelled plane (SSTO) can achieve. If you're talking about launching from a jet, that is already happening with virgin orbit, but they are limited to smaller payloads.
So basically, jets aren't good compared to "outdated" ground launch is that the payload is incredibly small and jets don't even work in space. Ground launched rockets are better because you can scale them up to carry massive payloads into higher orbits and past into interplanetary space.
He overshot I think most flights where supposed to go to 70 km not 100km except for twice where they intended to go to space of the 3 times they did it but idk what flight he was referring to
@@tjxwheel7812 the x 15 was designed to go to space..it had all the control surfaces that spacecraft have today. And every flight path was planned. It seems as though the "accidental" part of this story is false since there seems to be little to no evidence that this unintentional
I have a question. The first American citizen to reach space was Alan B. Shepard Jr. He was launched into space onboard the Freedom 7 spacecraft from Cape Canaveral’s Launch Complex 5. He wasn’t even the second American in space, so where did you get this information?
And for those who are saying: no, the X15 isn’t a plane, cuz it have a rocket engine. A plane is a air navigation device, with wings and a PROPELER OR REACTION engine. A reaction engine includes rocket (Solid Rocket or Liquid), jet (every single jet engine variation).
Hello Zack! love your vids! I am not saying your wrong but this man was not the first person to go into Space he was one of the steps ahead into space but he was very close! Alan Shepard was the first American
He's not the first US citizen to fly into space, but the first US citizen to fly into space in an airplane, an aircraft that is not certified or designed for space flight (no air tight compartment designed for use in space certification, no life support-systems, no additional survival equipment in case of a hull breach or decompression etc). The closest would be a Space Shuttle, but those take off vertically anyway, instead of climbing like a plane.
