Joe Engle, the first astronaut to fly into space in two separate spacecraft, has died at the age of 91.
Engle's death was announced Wednesday (July 10) in a public post by his family on Facebook.
"Blessed with natural flying skills, General Joe, as he was known by many, was happiest in a cockpit," the letter said. "He lived a fulfilling life as a proud American, U.S. Air Force pilot, astronaut and Kansas Jayhawk. His passing leaves a tremendous loss in our hearts."
Engle's first flight in space preceded his appointment as a NASA astronaut by 10 months. As a test pilot in a joint U.S. Air Force-NASA research program, Engle flew the X-15 rocket plane more than 50 miles (80 kilometers), qualifying for his astronaut wings, on June 29, 1965.
"I honestly remember it being more important to get as close to 50 miles as possible than to exceed 50 miles. [the] "I followed the planned elevation profile as closely as I could, and I think the fact that it came very, very close meant more to me than the fact that I traveled more than 50 miles," Engle said in a 2004 NASA oral history.
Engle repeated the feat two more times during his total of 16 flights aboard the X-15 before being selected for NASA's fifth group of astronauts in April 1966.
His second winged flight into space was in the space shuttle Columbia.
On November 12, 1981, Engle launched with Richard "Dick" Truly on STS-2, the second mission of the Space Transportation System. The mission demonstrated that the Space Shuttle orbiter was reusable and was the first to "fly" the Canadarm remote manipulator system, or robotic arm.
"We launched and went through the vibrations of the launch, which was very impressive," Engle said during a 35th anniversary celebration of his STS-2 flight. "And very loud and noisy - very uninspiring, by the way - it was like an old pickup truck with a bunch of loose tools in the back."
Truly and Engle also tested the vehicle's orbital maneuvering system engines, conducted several scientific experiments, spoke live with President Ronald Reagan, and were woken up by the Muppets ("Pigs in Space"). The planned five-day flight was subsequently aborted due to a fuel cell failure.
On November 14, 1981, Columbia, with Engle at the controls, landed at Edwards Air Force Base, using the same dry soil in Southern California where he had previously landed the X-15.
Related: NASA's Space Shuttle: The First Reusable Spacecraft
Four years later, Engle commanded his fifth and final spaceflight (his second launch into orbit), NASA's STS-51I mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Along with pilot Dick Covey and mission specialists James "Ox" van Hoften, Mike Lounge, and Bill Fisher, Engle and his crew launched three commercial communications satellites and retrieved and repaired another satellite that had been launched on an earlier space shuttle mission.
The week-long mission concluded with Engle's landing of Discovery at Edwards Air Force Base.
In total, Engle flew for nine days, 8 hours and 30 minutes while orbiting the Earth 149 times. He is listed as the sixth person to make a suborbital flight and the 104th to orbit the Earth in the Association of Space Explorers' Registry of Space Travelers.
Joe Henry Engle was born on August 26, 1932, in Chapman, Kansas. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Kansas in 1955 and was commissioned in the Air Force through the school's Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps.
Engle earned his pilot's wings in 1958 and was assigned to fly F-100 Super Sabre jets with the 474th Fighter Day Squadron and later the 309th Tactical Fighter Squadron at George Air Force Base in California. Recommended by Chuck Yeager to the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Engle graduated in 1961 and then, again at Yeager's urging, entered the third class of the Aerospace Research Pilot School.
"I found out later that Chuck's philosophy was that the good pilots are the ones who fly the best, who are the ones ...
Before flying the X-15, Engle had applied for NASA's third group of astronauts, but the Air Force rejected his offer to fly the rocket plane.
As a NASA astronaut, Engle first served on the crew of 2TV-1, a vacuum chamber test of the Apollo command module. For eight days, Engle lived with astronauts Joseph Kerwin and Vance Brand in the sealed capsule, simulating space flight.
Related: The Apollo Program: How NASA Sent Astronauts to the Moon
Engle was then assigned as a support crew member for Apollo 10, before being named backup lunar module pilot for the 1971 Apollo 14 mission. This put him in line to land on the Moon on Apollo 17, but he was replaced by geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt due to pressure to have a scientist fly before the Moon landing program ended.
"That was of course what the moon missions were all about [science]so it was a perfectly legitimate reasoning," Engle said. "I think [the] The first choice would have been to leave the crew intact, but I think there was a lot of pressure [to fly Schmitt]and that is understandable."
Engle was reassigned to the shuttle program, where he was paired with his future STS-2 crewmate, Truly, to be one of two teams that demonstrated the orbiter's ability to land like an airplane as part of a series of approach and landing tests. Engle and Truly flew one "captured" flight with the prototype Enterprise attached to the top of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and two "free" flights, during which they separated from the modified 747 jetliner at altitude and then landed at Edwards.
"A lot of the aircraft systems had to be developed, because the shuttle wasn't really an airplane. You had to go through the airplane part of the shuttle to get it to the ground, the part where everybody could see you come back and land," Engle said in 2016. "And that was the most important thing."
Between his first and second space shuttle missions, Engle served as deputy associate administrator for human spaceflight at NASA Headquarters from March to December 1982.
Engle retired from NASA on November 28, 1986. He resigned from the Air Force two days later and was promoted to the rank of major general on December 1. Engle's last active military assignment was as the Air National Guard aide to the commander in chief of U.S. Space Command and North American Air Defense Command, headquartered at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. In total, Engle logged more than 14,700 hours of flying time, 9,900 of which were in jet aircraft, while flying more than 185 different types of aircraft, including 38 different fighter and attack aircraft.
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For his service to the U.S. space program, Engle has been awarded the Astronaut Wings of the U.S. Air Force and NASA, Commendations of the Air Force and NASA, two NASA Space Medals, and a Distinguished Service Medal from NASA. He has received the Dr. Robert H. Goddard Memorial Trophy, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, and the Iven C. Kincheloe Prize, the latter for his role in the Space Shuttle Approach and Landing Test Program.
Engle was inducted into the Aerospace Walk of Honor in Lancaster, California, in 1992, and into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2001. In 2014, he was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in California.
In 2021, the Astronaut Joe Engle Archive Collection was first presented at the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Aviation Museum in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, based on a donation of his archives from the previous year.
Engle was preceded in death in February of this year by his STS-2 crewmate, Truly. With Engle's death, all 12 pilots who flew the X-15 are now deceased.
Engle was first married to Mary Catherine Lawrence, with whom he had two children and a stepchild. He is survived by his widow, Jeanie Carter Engle.
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