On July 17, 1962, the American test pilot Bob White broke the world record for the highest altitude flight.
He took off from Edwards Air Force Base in a rocket-powered X-15 aircraft and made it to an altitude of 314,750 feet. That’s almost 60 miles!
Related stories:
At the time, the Air Force considered the edge of space to be 50 miles above the Earth. So White received astronaut wings for his record-breaking spaceflight.
Catch up on our entire “On This Day In Space” series on YouTube with this playlist (opens in new tab).
On This Day in Space Archive!
[embedded content]
Still not enough space? Don’t forget to check out our Space Image of the Day, and on the weekends our Best Space Photos and Top Space News Stories of the week.
Follow us @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
