Flight 90 - The Plane that Accidentally Flew into Space

It wasn't supposed to be a spaceship...
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Dark Space features the mysterious and little told stories of US, Soviet, and global space exploration from the dawn of the space race to today... all in the cinematic short documentary format we love to create. Subscribe today, and feel free to reach out with your own suggestions for new stories that you want us to bring to life. Thanks as always for your support.

[@timdskibum]

My grandpa died 20 years ago, and whenever i watch these awesome videos I can catch a peek of him, he is buttoning down the hatch at 6:09 sporting those aviators decades before Tom Cruise... These guys were legendary.

[@justadbeer]

That's so cool!

[@roccitycrew3887]

He should have spoke about how the plane actually got stuck up there because it was just skipping off the atmosphere, and it took him a while to figure out how to slow it down so he could descend.

[@dougball328]

That would have been Neil's flight !

[@shawnclark732]

Gravity takes care of that eventually. That and air drag.

[@xpusostomos]

Yep, gravity is a thing, there was no chance of being stuck there. He didn't achieve orbit, nor could he have.

[@brandoncrawford5323]

​@@xpusostomoslol true. Still pretty sweet how that qualified Neil to get his Astronaught wings before he joined the Gemini and Apollo program lol.

[@liquidsnakex]

The “skipping” is not possible in this scenario. It’s not even a real phenomenon, only a perceived effect that can happen with the extreme speeds associated with returning from the moon or Mars. There is no skip, all that happens is that you’re either deep enough in the atmo to be slowed down on the first orbit, or not. If not you are said to have “skipped” off the atmo. There is no interaction you can have with the atmosphere that will speed you up or raise your altitude (out in space or the upper atmo), any contact with it will always slow you down and thus lower your altitude, or at best maintain it. Because this craft wasn’t going anywhere even close to orbital speeds, it would have been impossible for it to experience anything like the “skip” effect.

[@chronocommander007]

If you were to rush a little less you might not confuse feet with miles.

[@chrisbeard9113]

I confuse feet with hands, and I’m also banned from Sizzler and Old Country Buffet

[@SierraThunder]

So, flight 91, at 360,900 "miles", was slated to go even further out into space. These boys were REALLY ambitious, weren't they?...

[@BrazilBeachBum]

To the moon and beyond!!!

[@tomusmc1993]

Past the moon so I would say yes. Very ambitious 😂

[@marknesselhaus4376]

Yeah, I caught that little slip. That would have been some engine performance ;-)

[@mikethetowns]

"Oopsie" - some NASA engineer

[@Zathrosb5]

@@mikethetownsthe agony of de-feet!

[@RickHenson-p4k]

I know everyone says the SR-71 is the most famous plane in US history! But I remember the X-15, from TV and movies and the information that was released in the 70's. I loved that it was so fast, had to be dropped from a B-52, and it just looked so badass! Thanks for doing this video! I subbed, I thought I was already, I know I used to be! ........dang KZbin!

[@LouiseRidgeway]

Hell yeah that was really WILD different breed

[@mileshigh1321]

Walker, what an incredible test pilot! Shocked to see he was in the Jet that hit the Valkyrie !

[@Luke..luke..luke..]

😢

[@Wooargh]

This is why HEALTH AND SAFETY is now paramount in every mission. It is better not do anything than have an accident.

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

yeah....... hearing that name, Walker, I thought the same, "...... I Think....that was the pilot in the XB-70 promotional footage/crash (he being the pilot flying the F-104)."

[@henricomonterosa4534]

Such a shame such a pilot was wasted for a stupid Marketing stunt.

[@bobvandiver9395]

A word of advice for the narrator: Decaf

[@markotrieste]

Been telling him the same since long. He always reads the script as if he was chased by something...

[@braddie77]

Mmm... AI though?

[@bigtime69420]

here i am listening at 2x speed maybe i need some decaf too

[@tdffl8843]

Slow playback speed a tad

[@zuckdaddy1596]

@@braddie77you people are so insufferable it’s unreal

[@jim2lane]

6:30 - 314,916 miles would have put the X-15 past the orbit of the moon 😉

[@anonone8954]

😆😂🤣 Just doesn't compute.

[@texasyojimbo]

Yes, there's a couple of points in the video where the narrator accidentally says "miles" instead of "feet."

[@vondahe]

Well, he DID say into space, didn’t he? 😅

[@marvinfruth1892]

My thoughts also.😂

[@chronocommander007]

Feet not miles

[@cabininthewoods7326]

Neil Armstrong had a similar incident, he mentioned flying the X15 and skipping in and out of atmosphere.

[@CostantinoPipero]

Had to play this at 0.8 speed. Great content, improvable delivery.

[@flapdrol]

I agree. I would watch these videos for more than 10 seconds if it wasn't for the voice-over.

[@SierraThunder]

If walker had piloted the X-15 over an altitude of 314,000+ "miles" during Flight 90, he would have passed through & beyond the moon's orbit. And methinks that he was just a tad short on his fuel amount for that possibility. However, it would have been a mighty interesting flight had he gone into Low Earth Orbit & then found that he was unable to reenter....

[@qc7zy]

He meant feet

[@HuntingTarg]

He didn't reach escape velocity; to achieve stable LEO the requisite speed is almost Mach 7 MSL.

[@paulbeaney4901]

I find it outrageous that we do not have a functioning space plane.

[@Red_Genie]

The Military has one but is more like a space probe , X37.

[@HuntingTarg]

Look on NASA's site about the X-33, an attempt by NASA to build a commercially viable spaceplane. It almost succeeded.

The Dream Chaser should make its first flight this year.

[@Red_Genie]

Yes DC is set to fly but sadly it’s not crewed. I would pay to see DC launch on New Glenn .

@ There will be crewed versions.

[@phillysdetailinggarage]

This is my favorite episode so far! Great work.

[@marcusclarkson2657]

Mach 5 in a fuel tank, overshoot planned altitude by 31K FEET!! these guys were MANIACS.

[@bomguy999999]

I believe you need to reevaluate your distances. Feet vs miles is one hell of a difference.

[@brucebrierly8497]

Good as always. Check your script. You twice said miles when you meant feet.

[@dougball328]

And he referred to Walker's F104 as F-194

[@tehaury]

I’ve not seen a single video from these guys that didn’t have such an error. This channel makes multiple intentional errors like that to drive people to the comments. Feeds the algorithm.

[@erikaairmusic]

@@tehauryholy shit.

[@Halluci44]

It's ai

[@SpacePatrollerLaser]

I was in early adolescence in '58 and very interested and knowledgeable. The X-15 was advertised as "space paine" from the get-go since the beginning. '63 seemed rather late for the first entry into space for it. I had a picture in a book on projected space travel from 1961 that showed the X-15 mounted on a booster rocket for proposed missions

[@anonone8954]

I really enjoyed the old Popular Science magazines. I can't remember the names of some of the others. Science America and Mechanics Illustrated, I think?

[@SpacePatrollerLaser]

@@anonone8954 The three biggies were POPULAR SCIENCE, PIPULAR MECHANICX and SCIENCE & MECHANIX. Of more general interest was LIFE and somehwat earlier COLLIER'S, both of these did extensive artcles on space flight in the 1949-55 timeframe, including "flying saucers" (LIFE)

[@anonone8954]

@SpacePatrollerLaser Thank you for sharing I'm getting old and forgetful. Beats the alternative, though.

[@SpacePatrollerLaser]

@@anonone8954 My pleasure. Do you remember SPACE PATROL?

[@1D991]

Plenty of PopSci back then took liberties with their artwork as they were looking to the future (I'm not even sure if thr magazine exists these days, but I collected them and even had old publications from my grandpa's collection that went back quite a ways)

[@Nefville]

I've actually touched an X-15. If you go to the Wright Patterson AFB Museum, you can see it and get close enough to touch it yourself. Its free to get in too. They have it all, they have this, the loudest plane ever made, B2 stealth bomber, F117 stealth fighter, the Avrocar, that giant X-whatever Valkyrie, multiple SR-71s and the CIA 2 seater version and on and on and on... its one of the absolute best ways to spend a day or two, again, for FREE. Edit: 3:26, that's it, that's the exact X-15 I touched. Just looked at my pictures from that day. Very cool!

[@dougball328]

The comment was made that it would another 40 years before a rocket powered vehicle would make it to space. If you are referring to the shuttle, it didn't take 40 years for it to make multiple flights with the same airframe.

[@Pete856]

He might have been meaning vehicles launched from under an aircraft, which then fly to space, like the X-15 did. I assume that would be "Spaceship one" in 2003.

[@dougball328]

@@Pete856 Perhaps. But that would didn't take 40 years from the end of the X-15 program.

[@volodymyrs.9626]

If I drink toom much coffee, I talk like this guy at meetings😈

[@paulmckinder3082]

That x15 looks modern now let alone in the 50/60s

[@roccitycrew3887]

Wow! An 83 second fuel burn got that thing to Mach 5 AND 319,000 miles in altitude?!? Almost to the Moon in 80 or so seconds!!!!

[@johnb9259]

Feet, not miles

[@markrix]

He was really really REALLY high 😂

[@goldgeologist5320]

First test of secret warp drive.

[@Tmarc7665]

Amazing how those that will not be fooled are awake to the BS pushed by propaganda media!😂

[@TheAcceleratorMagazine]

DAMNNN!!! Feet/miles. Either the person or the computer voice misspoke. Get over it geniuses. Not one person actually thot the rocket or plane went up over 300,000 miles. Don't get a woody thinkin you caught an actual mistake. Damnn.

[@Gymnos2]

The X-15 is just incredible, what a great story! Thanks, love your work.

[@Aidan0802]

Lmao play this entire video at 0.9x speed, then it sounds completely normal

[@AlanpittsS2b]

I’m a private pilot if aerobatic aircraft. A Pitts and a Russian yak55m. I also fly rc and my buddy built a giant scale rc x15 with rocket engines and it went 323mph. It was very neat

[@pi.actual]

What is with all of the obvious mis-statements like miles instead of feet, Walkers F-194 aircraft instead of F-104? This channel is getting sloppy.

[@Airsally]

Yeah and they said miles of altitude instead of feet. Also some vid didn't match the actual flight numbers.

[@bsc4344]

it’s actually been the way for years. I unsubscribed a while back from all the “dark” related channels made by the same mob that makes them all, for such pathetic errors. zero excuses for this carp. Don’t care if it’s ridiculous humanity hating Ai speech app or a primate level text to voice script that reads “ Eight Eight Ehm Ehm” when pretending to educate on the German flak cannon (who the F speaks like that?? NO ONE.), or the speed of an American prop powered fighter plane whose dive speed was spoken to be WELL PASSED MACH 1.5 in another episode, I can’t tolerate such junk even though the footage is usually good (ignoring the frequently MISIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT OR WEAPONS of course, or lazy abusive misuse of various footage obviously unrelated to the historical timeline or subject) . When errors are so easily ignored and blatant, then I know quality control, and preflight draft reviews are non existent. I don’t waste time with such eye candy garbage. As for watching this a moment, I didn’t bother seeing what source/author it was. NOT lack of quality control on my part, I wrongly trusted the “DO NOT RECOMMEND CHANNEL” feature actually worked... and blindly clicked. Don’t trust ewwtoob to actually work as they want you to believe...

[@BigReecey]

It's algorithm manipulation, makes people comment counting as engagement

[@sparky6086]

Getting sloppy? It's been sloppy. "Style over accuracy" should be Dark Skies & Dark Space's motto! They are marginally entertaining though.

[@baronvonslambert]

@@sparky6086 This. The entire collection of "dark _____" channels has been sloppy since the get go, and not just with the script editing. They often often over sensationalize events and repeat myths and bad information like a shorter form Simon Whistler channel or The History Channel lol. Once I started watching creators with access to actual military and historical archives and experts I basically stopped watching save for the occasional video that piques my interest.

[@Airsally]

A few mistakes were noted . But a great vid on an awesome program.

[@Steve-v8t3t]

How in the world did those pilots fit in that small cockpit with the gigantic balls it took to fly that hypersonic missile?

[@timdskibum]

tight Fruit of the Looms...

[@iamcondescending]

Walker gets back to base, and a large, hairy man just yells, "You're an astronaut walker!!"

[@infinidominion]

Airy Potter

[@Bulletin-mf2dy]

It's crazy to think that had he stayed as an X-15 test pilot, he could have lived a full life and might have become an astronaut.

[@HuntingTarg]

No, the demonstration flight of the XB-70 that went horribly wrong was a freak accident, owing to the Valkyrie's unusual aerodynamics. If it hadn't happened not only would several lives have been spared, but Air Force brass wouldn't have summarily scrapped the development program. Walker died doing what he loved, flying. God rest his soul.

[@Svensk7119]

It seemed to have been deliberate, hardly "accidental".

[@KumaBean]

‘….three hundred and sixty thousand, nine hundred miles’ Lol

[@destinyangel5]

They were testing X-15 for hypersonic autonomous missile nuke delivery platform weapons tech .

[@oxcart4172]

How the hell anyone can get in that thing and light that engine is beyond my comprehension!

[@robertwilliamson922]

At 6:31……”…total altitude of 314,961 miles...”. And at 8:34….”…with a flight altitude of 360,900 miles….” WOW ! That X-15 passed the orbit of the moon. AMAZING ! No wonder he got his Astronaut’s Wings. Way to go…😃

[@JosephHolness-u2m]

One of those "OOoooPs" moments.

[@thebarkingmouse]

6:32 Feet? Definitely not MI

[@TaterCat00]

Nah it flew to the moon and stopped for a snack on the way back

[@ChrisHirner]

fella seems so proud of his narratior voice, but yeah im thinking he means feet in a couple of those altitude goals. Otherwise the x15 must have passed the orbit of the moon. Neat!

[@stanleykendziorski7964]

Let's not forget that Larry Trainor flew into space and joined with a radioactive space entity before crashing and becoming negative man, that's the real first space flight of the x15

[@Marc-dm1fh]

*Doom Patrol theme intensifies...*

[@lewis9888]

From what I have read about America's SR92, it can fly in Space. What I saw of it, it looks like a triangle.

[@miggitymikeb]

Narrator forgot to turn off 1.25x mode

[@dantyler6907]

360,000 miles? (altiitude) NOBODY has STILL made it that high, even 60 years later!!!

[@Splashbang_OW]

Feet not miles. Miles was a typo i guess on the video creator's part.

[@jeremyashford2145]

S the Karman line marks the extent of earth's atmosphere aerodynamics can not be relied on for either lift or steering and returning to the atmosphere to come back to Earth must rely on gravity. 100km altitude is well below VLEO, very low earth orbit. Wikipedia tells me that "These orbits, below about 450 km (280 mi), require the use of novel technologies for orbit raising because they operate in orbits that would ordinarily decay too soon to be economically useful." Below 450km objects drop out of the sky.

[@Bob-s2i9q]

They think the 3:26 valkyrie sucked him in and caused the flip,but nobody knows for sure...

[@markrix]

Yeah he got caught in the vortices generated at the end of the wingtips.. sad it was to impress some CEOs and make a good photo shoot, where is Luigi flyer edition when you need him.

[@OldBillOverHill]

I once mentioned the X Program and some kid thought I was confusing it with star wars. lol.

[@peter5.056]

An airplane flying in space? Surely, you can't serious.

[@donaldaxel]

The "Kármán Line" is ca. 100 km above earth, and satellites at that level begin to get in trouble because the thin air makes resistance. I always wondered if a spaceflight could end by synching with Earth's rotation at the Equator and then slowly fall ... NO, sadly now. The speed of a low altitude satellite is much higher than the ca. 1740 km/h which would be good for descent without air-resistance.

[@kevanhubbard9673]

That's high and in the lower Thermosphere.I didn't realize that aircraft had gotten that high.The U2 gets up into the top of the Stratosphere.Above all the cloud types,most are in the Troposphere but you have rare very high ones like Nacreous in the Stratosphere and Noctilucent in the Mesosphere but he got above both.

[@moodogco]

Was the 2 extra fuel tanks fitted underneath the x15 on some flights dropped b4 the flight or during the flights? As ive never of the x15 flying with the tanks attached etc

[@Airsally]

Some of the vid didn't match the story. For instance the first flight was flown with 8 smaller rockets,yet vid showed a suppose first flight vid with the big XLR-11 engine.

[@laurenmp7486]

The external tanks were added later on to facilitate longer engine burn times and thus higher speeds. The wikipedia article on the X-15 gets into the details of the development of the X-15 pretty well.

[@brandoncrawford5323]

Its like NASA said "lets make sure we earn our Space name for National Aeronautical and Space Administration" lol

[@markopolo8136]

Huh, I thought Flight 90 flew into the 14th Street Bridge

[@thomasbruner854]

Yep, he was truly the first man in space!

[@springfieldbearpatrol2937]

Is it a plane or a rocket? It's a robot that turns into a building. Seriously though, what a platform. Incredible speed.

[@Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P]

Remarkable Aircraft.......... TRULY, Remarkable MEN!!!

[@jime6688]

So, at what point in space are you able to reenter with a plane that I ASSUME doesn’t have a heat shield? Amazing stuff and very curious.

[@MagicAl5F4781]

The X-15 was nowhere near as fast as an orbital spacecraft and so it got nowhere near as hot. It got very hot, but not hot enough to melt or compromise the alloy it was made of, if it was flown correctly, so it didn't need a heat shield per se.

[@interestedinstuff]

360,900 miles?? Feet I assume. Great video. The altitude in miles instead of feet happens a couple of times. Still a great video.

[@IanMiddletonX]

I think you might need to check out the difference between feet and miles. 360,900 miles would take it well beyond the orbit of the moon!

[@andrevonsuppiny2700]

Very nice looking plane

[@draywanda]

@6:30 314, 691 miles is slightly above the karman line...

[@brendanmallon5646]

Not all x-planes were rocket powered, some were jets, including two that you have mentioned specifically in the video.

[@Gundamnenjoyer]

it was basically a missile with a man in it.

[@snoblitz]

Dude you really need to work on your pronunciations. Very sloppy reading of the script with what almost sounds like a speech impediment, made this video unwatchable for me.

[@lewis9888]

Our SR92 supposedly can go between Mach 6 and Mach.7.

[@Poptrepica]

If you watch at .8 speed it sounds more normal

[@UNoBugMe1]

I can only imagine what they have today in 2025.

[@boburwell9921]

XLR 99 made in NJ by Reaction Motors

[@elias7814]

314 000 miles? Helluva a trajectory 😂😂😂

[@kenalbrecht5649]

In hindsight, we should have stuck with the X15 type project instead of pouring money into the very expensive shuttle program

[@xpusostomos]

Don't be silly, the X15 could never achieve orbit. While it technically got into space, real space is getting into orbit.

[@flatearthbanjo]

At 3:02 Flat Horizon, Flat Earth

[@wowfubar]

It's more like a reusable missile with a pilot.

[@martinriley106]

It wasn’t destined to fly again because of arrogance, sheer stupidity and showing off.

[@bobjoatmon1993]

CLICKBAIT It didn't 'accidentally' fly into space. It was a test program pushing the boundaries of the envelope. They weren't supprised by unexpected things, they were excited and pleased.

[@raeb5226]

. . . did this aircraft have issues with air resistance when coming back from space? How was re-entry handled?

[@wrayday7149]

Yes officer I accidently was doing 80 in a 45.

[@frankkolmann4801]

interesting Can't tolerate the background music

[@pantherpev]

Wow they flew higher than the moon!

[@TravisBrady-wn8fr]

Don't blame em. I wanna get the hell outta here too

[@roccitycrew3887]

He said it flew 300,000 or so miles in altitude TWICE in this video! How can someone make videos like this and have absolutely no idea what they're talking about?! It's so obvious he hasn't got a clue.

[@thepope9023]

Depending on script to much. Not questioning what is on the script.

[@wayupnorth9420]

The X-15 was a manned rocket. Nuff said

[@scoobameru2458]

Space... Okay👌

[@troyevitt2437]

Too much background/lead-up before you get to the incident represented in the title.

[@tomford8286]

~6:34 Miles or feet? Feet you dolt.

[@buildintotrains]

8:30 : *feet* not miles haha

[@maddogcharm]

He did it twice, at least.

[@johngjesdahl-xx2gb]

Makes sense to launch space vehicle from B52 already moving than to launch from pad like V2. ..?

[@Topsy_Krett77]

Just to note, "NACA" is pronounced saying each letter individually rather than as one word.

[@baronvonslambert]

I've never not heard it called "nacka" in my 35 years of life.

[@Topsy_Krett77]

@@baronvonslambert That may be true for you, but the consensus from online aviation sources as well as a video by NASA's (former) Chief Historian, Bill Barry, is the way I described it.

[@randyshoquist7726]

@@baronvonslambert Perhaps you're just too young. NACA became NASA 32 years before you were born. Plenty of time for the incorrect, but nearly inevitable pronunciation to take root.

[@JeffBrazeel-fe4wc]

313,000 miles is BEYOND THE MOONS ORBIT, You misspoke and meant feet.

[@martinriley106]

Walker was not a civilian he was part of the USAF and he was not the first man in space, that was held by Yuri Gagarin in 12th April 1961. Gus Grissom was the first man to fly into space twice on 23rd March 1965. Talk about make it up as you go along! 🙈🙊🙉

[@MarcelRommens]

What are the numbers in meters and km? Miles and feet say nothing to me

[@xpusostomos]

I agree, but to be fair, these are yanks using yankee units

[@CHarris1066]

Im loving the music what is the track? Anybody?

[@harrykeel8557]

And to think that they dud all of this with slide rules and pure imagination. Not a X -box in sight!

[@rjm7168]

314961 miles altitude? I think they meant feet since this would put him beyonc the moon.

[@MichaelWizard-dt9ve]

I'd like to fly the x-15 except that I don't know how to fly any plane and I would be terrified. Other than that I'd like to fly the x-15.

[@MB-wn9cv]

Not an accident, everything was planned.

[@jeffreysokal7264]

These would be fine videos but for the narrator's robotic-like vocalizations.

[@Naidu-k8m]

isnt space beyond the ozone levels ? how did he exit it without getting zapped ?

[@soldtobediers]

7:53 347,000 ft / 5,280 ft per mi = 66 mi = space.

[@greggc8088]

"Accidentally"

[@JesusAlleineRettet]

Technology taken from Germany and modified in the US

[@mongomoonbladder8023]

I love how all the serial numbers start with 666, the number of a real beast 😁