Astronaut Joe Engle

Photo Size: 8" x 10" - Remastered and Suitable for Framing

Plane Type: X-15 & Space Shuttle

Joe H. Engle - Maj Gen, USAF, Ret., is an American pilot who served in the United States Air Force, test pilot for the North American X-15 program, aeronautical engineer, and a former NASA astronaut. As of 2016, he is the only surviving X-15 pilot.

Engle test-flew the joint NASA-Air Force X-15 rocket airplane. During the course of testing, Engle earned his USAF Astronaut Wings, a Distinguished Flying Cross and other awards. Engle was selected by NASA in 1966 for the Apollo program, and was originally scheduled to land on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 17, but was bumped when later flights were cancelled, so that geologist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt could fly.

He subsequently became one of the first astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, having flight tested the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977. Together with pilot Richard Truly he flew as Commander on the second flight of the Space Shuttle, STS-2 in 1981. He was also mission commander on STS-51-I "Discovery" and logged over 225 hours in space.

Engle has flown over 185 different types of aircraft (25 different fighters) during his career: logging more than 15,400 hours flight time; 9,000 in jet aircraft, and is the only human being to have flown two different types of winged vehicles in space, the X-15 and the Space Shuttle. He is the only astronaut to have manually flown the Shuttle through reentry and landing.