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North American X-15

The North American X-15 was a fleet of three reusable rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft developed by North American Aviation for a joint NASA, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy program. The three airframes made 199 flights from 1959 through 1968, reached Mach 6.70 and 354,200 feet, and generated aerodynamic, heating, control, structural, and human-factors data used across Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle development.

North American X-15
NASA · Stored JPEG is a resized/re-encoded rendition of the NASA image ec88-0180-1.jpg (stored/public 2048x1606 SHA-256 85c3f39e09b4bd1dd24ac764059229e4953ea1af60340a5cc97b109b2c08e85f; authoritative NASA original 5100x4000 SHA-256 2173ef7d6864ee4271ff13d23cf07337cc6b42ad1fc787ff2596ab90037a6129). Resizing the authoritative asset to the stored dimensions yielded MAE 5.52, RMSE 6.95, and Pearson correlation 0.981599; the original and stored files have the same 1.275 aspect ratio and matching X-15 No. 2 / 56-6671 launch composition. NASA's exact X-15 program page identifies the photograph as "The X-15 No. 2 (56-6671) launches away from the B-52 mothership with its rocket engine ignited." and credits NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/reference/x-15/. NASA's current Images and Media Usage Guidelines state that NASA content generally is not subject to U.S. copyright and may be used factually or informationally when NASA is acknowledged; NASA-hosted third-party images are marked and NASA's use does not convey rights; commercial use must not imply endorsement and NASA logos and identifiers are protected: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. This is an asset-level, conservative factual/editorial reuse basis with NASA attribution, not a blanket license for promotional content, merchandise, NASA branding, or endorsement. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
X-15X-15 programNorth American X-15 program
Family Name
X-15
Full Name
North American X-15
Roles
researchexperimental
Status
retired
Type
spaceplane

Details

Aircraft Specs
Max Takeoff Mass
…
Description
The North American X-15 was a fleet of three reusable rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft developed by North American Aviation for a joint NASA, U.S. Air Force, and U.S. Navy program. The three airframes made 199 flights from 1959 through 1968, reached Mach 6.70 and 354,200 feet, and generated aerodynamic, heating, control, structural, and human-factors data used across Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle development.
Dimensions
Height
…
First Flight Year
1,959
Last Flight Year
1,968
Manufacturer
Operator
Propulsion Configurations
  • Entries
    • Count
      1
      Propulsion System
      Role
      unknown
Spacecraft Specs
Reusability
fully_reusable

Links

Official Url
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/sp-4518.pdf
Wikipedia Url
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_X-15

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 7, 2026 at 05:59:44 UTC
Updated Time
August 14, 2026 at 22:07:54 UTC
Image
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