X-15B (2019) | Hacker News Reader

X-15B (2019)

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46 pointsbenbreen7 comments

Astronaut Michael Collins discusses in Liftoff how people generally expected in the late 1950s that a descendant of the X-15 would be the first spaceship; that is, something with wings would one day have enough power to reach orbit.

Sputnik, and the consequent desire by the US to get someone in space ASAP, preempted the gradual process of ever-faster aircraft in favor of capsules. Without the space race, the X-15B or X-20 or something else would likely have taken an American into space for the first time. It would have been a few years later than Alan Shepard's first flight in 1961, but would probably have been a more sustainable technology.

> Due to the low perigee and aerodynamics of the X-15, no retrorocket was required, although the X-15's restartable engine could be used if necessary. Using its cross range capability of about 800 to 1,000 km, the X-15 would ditch in the Gulf of Mexico. The heat shield would consist of beryllium oxide and Rene 41 alloy. The pilot would eject and land by parachute, with the aircraft being lost.

Slowing down from orbit and then requiring the pilot to ditch via parachute over the Gulf of Mexico seems insane even by 50s test pilot standards, although I wouldn’t be surprised if pilots have done crazier.

>Slowing down from orbit and then requiring the pilot to ditch via parachute over the Gulf of Mexico seems insane even by 50s test pilot standards, although I wouldn’t be surprised if pilots have done crazier.

They did. Yuri Gagarin did not land with his spacecraft; Vostok was designed so that the pilot always used his own parachute after reentering the atmosphere.

(This was kept secret, as it meant that Vostok 1 did not qualify as the first orbital spaceflight based on FAI rules.)

North American also built the Apollo CSM and the Saturn S-II stage, then became Rockwell which built the Space Shuttle.

This is what evolved into the X-37B we have today, isn't it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37

I'd never heard of the X-15B before your post, very interesting. It's crazy that it was manned back then.

Not really. The X-15 is/was a hypersonic research platform, intended to research flight in the (upper) atmosphere. The X-15B, as stated by the OP, was a manned spaceflight program. The X-37 is basically a reusable (unmanned) satellite. They are very different programs. There are perhaps some engineers that worked on both programs because North American eventually became owned by Boeing, but the programs share no design heritage that I can tell.

I think the reentry vehicles are a slightly different branch of development to the X-15.

The precursor programs highlight the evolution of the basic idea of "we need something dropped from orbit to survive" on to Shuttle/Buran:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASSET_(spacecraft)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-20_Dyna-Soar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_X-23_PRIME

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Marietta_X-24

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-40

Soviet equivalents:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-105

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOR-4

> It's crazy that it was manned back then.

The Shuttle was being flown 11 years ago!

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