posted 12-12-2005 08:02 PM               

First of all, 12 men flew the X-15 and 10 of them (besides Engle and Armstrong) probably had very different reasons why they did not apply or were not accepted to ride NASA's "other" rockets.

I don't really know a lot about Bruce Peterson.

Walker, White, McKay, Rushworth, Engle, Knight, Dana, and Adams all qualified as astronauts in the X-15 by the US definition (over 80 km). By the international definition (Federation Aeronautique Internationale [FAI]) of over 100 km, only Walker would have qualified as an astronaut (he did it twice).

Dana, McKay, and Walker only recently (Aug 2005) were awarded civilian pilot wings since NASA did not award pilot wings (or astronaut wings) to civilians previously. Dana was present at the ceremony, and McKay and Walker received their wings posthumously.

So, perhaps some of the X-15 pilots thought that winged spacecraft were the way to go. Robert White became the 5th American in space on July 17, 1962, although with significantly less fanfare than the Mercury astronauts received.

An interesting question, to say the least.

On a related note, I had the opportunity to fly with Al Crews (MOL and X-20 DynaSoar pilot) a few years ago. I was doing a space shuttle TAL site support in Banjul, The Gambia, in a C-21 Learjet and he was assigned to represent the astronaut office at the site (we flew to check out the nav aids, lighting, etc, and then stayed airborne until after the shuttle passed the point where it could no longer go to the TAL site and would instead be able to get into orbit in the event of SSME loss.)

Anyway, during the week we were there I asked Al about whether he had applied to be an astronaut. He said that he did apply, but he was too old to be selected, so he instead worked in the flight ops directorate flying a BUNCH of different NASA airplanes -- not a bad deal if you can get it!

------------------
John Capobianco
Camden DE

posted 12-12-2005 08:32 PM               

He actually did apply for the astronaut program - twice. The first time, the USAF diverted him (voluntarily but it was suggested to him the future was with the DynaSoar program).

When that petered out, he reapplied, and again the USAF suggested MOL was the way to go.

As a career USAF Officer you tend to listen to "suggestions". He did, and when the second program went by the wayside he was then too old.

By the way he was a finalist each time he applied. So it is very possible he may well have been a moonwalker!

For anyone interested in what Al Crews looks like today - here is a picture of him and some others in my living room taken recently. From left to right it is:

Bud Evans, Paul Chell, Ken Chilstrom, Al Crews & Clyde Good. All former test pilots. Bud was also an advisor on the X-20 as was Bill Dana.

I'll see Al this Friday (along with Bud) at the Florida Aviation Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies, where I will be giving the introductory speeches for Bob White and "Slick" Goodlin.

Cheers,