Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 November 15
November 15: NASA X-15 (No. 3) crashed in Mojave Desert when the air-
craft “exceeded its structural limitations during the final portions of the
reentry maneuver,” X-15 Accident Investigating Board suspected. X-
15’s pilot, Maj. Michael J. Adams, did not use ejection system and was
killed, the first fatality in the 191 flights since the three X-15s started
their flight operations, June 8, 1959. Usual flight plan called for air-
craft to ascend at a sharp angle after being dropped by B-52 aircraft.
After engine burnout, plan called for coasting up into high thin air,
then dropping back in pancake style into thicker air for reentry. Accord-
ing to a NASA spokesman, the aircraft had risen tQ about 260,000 ft and
encountered trouble on the way down. “There apparently was some
sort of control malfunction as the pilot attempted to pull out of his
descent,” spokesman said. Radar and telemetry data received during
flight were excellent, data being received down to an altitude of 60,000
ft.
Speed and altitude records for winged aircraft4,534 mph, by Maj.
Joseph A. Walker
William J. Knight (USAF) , and 354,200 ft, by NASA’s
(who had since died in crash of XB-70 No. 2 and F-104 aircraft) -
had been set by z-15~. Two crash landings of X-15 laircraft had oc-
curred; pilots had survived and aircraft had been restored to flight
status. X-15 No. 3 pilot, Maj. Adams, 37, had finished USAF training
in 1952, flown in combat in Korea, and graduated with honors from
Aerospace Research Pilots School. Although assigned to MOL program,
he had requested transfer to X-12 operations.
Board was continuing att6mpt to determine the probable cause. (FRC
Release26-67; AP, NYT, 11/16/67,15)
In message transmitting to Congress annual report on US. participa-
tion in U.N. for 1966, President Johnson cited successful negotiation
of space law treaty as an “outstanding accomplishment . . . which bans
weapons of mass destruction from space and calls for peaceful coopera-
tion in its exploration and use.” He also cited success of U.N. Devel-
opment Program in providing economic assistance and approval of
charter for U.N. Industrial Development Organization to help new na-
tions create industries best suited to their needs. He commended U.N.
representatives’ unnoted work to fight ignorance, hunger, and disease,
and to promote economic and social development. (PD, 11/20/67,
1568-9)
NASA Administrator James E. Webb, at Chicago meeting of American
Petroleum Institute, spoke on space program’s technological and social
benefits in assessing developing capabilities which would “serve our
nation’s future needs.” He called attention to “special equipment that
will automatically monitor ground, underseas cable, or satellite circuits
carrying high-speed traffic [and] the entire international communica-
tions network structure of the world . . . more valuable today than it
was just a few years ago.” He also pointed out that “the rocket tech-
nology that carried Surveyor to the moon provided astronomers with
an improvement in resolution beyond that provided by Ranger by an-
other factor of 1OOO. That is 1000 times more detail than the Ranger
results which themselves were 1000 times better than anything before.”
Webb said the U.S.S.R. was “building a rocket bigger than Saturn V,
I feel sure.” He explained that the Saturn V-Apollo system “permits us
to operate out as far as the moon with large payloads of about 100,000
pounds.” He compared U.S.S.R. and U.S. exploration of the planet
345