With the Soviet Union's launch of the first Sputnik satellite in 1957, the Cold War soared to new heights as Americans feared losing the race into space. The X-15 Rocket Plane tells the enthralling yet little-known story of the hypersonic X-15, the winged rocket ship that met this challenge and opened the way into human-controlled spaceflight.

Drawing on interviews with those who were there, Michelle Evans captures the drama and excitement of, yes, rocket science: how to handle the heat generated at speeds up to Mach 7, how to make a rocket propulsion system that could throttle, and how to safely reenter the atmosphere from space and make a precision landing.

This book puts a human face on the feats of science and engineering that went into the X-15 program, many of them critical to the development of the Space Shuttle. And, finally, it introduces us to the largely unsung pilots of the X-15. By the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing, thirty-one American astronauts had flown into space -- eight of them astronaut-pilots of the X-15. The X-15 Rocket Plane restores these pioneers, and the others who made it happen, to their rightful place in the history of spaceflight.

Browse more spaceflight books at upinspace.org. Purchase the audio edition.

• We started tracking this book on March 2, 2016.
• This book was $22.49 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 44 times in the past 3,434 days.
• The current price of this book is $23.45 last checked 23 hours ago.
• This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is $18.57.
• The lowest price to date was $17.99 last reached on April 1, 2018.
• This book has been $17.99 one time since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $29.19 last reached on April 30, 2021.
• This book has been $29.19 one time since we started tracking it.

• HistoryAmericasUnited States20th Century
• HistoryScience & MedicineAstronomy
• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryUnited States20th Century

• Publication Date: June 1, 2013
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 480 Pages
• File Size: 53 KB