Astronaut meant to land on the Moon who lost out to a geologist
JOE ENGLE, who has died aged 91, was an astronaut who was scheduled to land on the Moon in 1972 on the Apollo 17 mission. Regarded by his colleagues as one of the best pilots of his generation, he was an obvious choice to accompany mission commander Gene Cernan to the unexplored lunar region of Taurus-littrow.
Engle had already flown the exotic X-15, an experimental space plane, 16 times. Three of these flights had exceeded 50 miles in altitude and crossed the boundary of space as set by the USAF. In 1971 he was a back-up for Apollo 14.
But as Engle’s training for his own Moon mission the following year intensified, Nasa became embarrassed by accusations that the Moon missions were simply landing crews of jet pilots on the Moon rather than yielding scientific knowledge. There was no room in the Apollo landers for a spare crew member beyond the commander and his co-pilot. If a scientist could not travel as a passenger, Nasa’s solution was to train a scientist to fly.
Dr Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, a geology professor who had helped to train lunar astronauts in field geology, was duly taught to fly jet aircraft and then the lunar lander.
Schmitt was being lined up for Apollo 18 or 19, but when those missions were cancelled in response to budget cuts and waning public interest, it became apparent that Engle’s Apollo 17 mission would be the final landing. Engle was therefore de-selected to make way for Schmitt and ensure that at least one geologist visited the Moon.
“Oh, I was disappointed,” Engle would later admit. “I obviously wanted to go and had trained for it. By the same token, Apollo was a geologic study of the Moon’s surface. Jack Schmitt had a doctorate in geology. It was a logical decision to make.”
As the Apollo program came to an end, Engle transferred to the Space Shuttle, first making test landings off the back of a Boeing 747 Jumbo jet, then commanding the second and 20th Shuttle flights to Earth orbit.
On his first Shuttle flight the technology was still immature, and what should have been a five-day mission was cut to two because of a fuel-cell malfunction. Engle compared the vibrations during the launch to “an old pick-up truck with a lot of loose tools in the back”.
Joe Henry Engle was born on August 26 1932 in Chapman, Kansas. As a boy he was enamoured with flight and model aircraft and always had his eyes on the sky.
He attended the University of Kansas at Lawrence, graduating in aeronautical engineering in 1955. He was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officers Training Course and earned his wings in 1958.
After serving in fighter squadrons, Engle entered the USAF Test Pilot School, graduating in 1961. He piloted the experimental X-15 space plane to extreme altitudes in a team which included Neil Armstrong, then joined Nasa in 1966.
He worked in support of the Apollo 10 circumlunar mission in 1969 then was back-up lunar module pilot for the Apollo 14 landing.
After losing his place on Apollo 17, Engle was offered the consolation of choosing between a position on the Skylab space station, a space docking with the Russians, or the Space Shuttle. Having a preference for winged craft, he chose the shuttle.
In 1981 he commanded the second flight of the space shuttle Columbia, becoming the only pilot to fly an aerospace vehicle manually at speeds from Mach 25 to landing.
Finally, in 1985, Engle commanded Discovery on one of the most challenging missions. His crew deployed three commercial satellites and retrieved, repaired and re-deployed another malfunctioning satellite.
After retiring as an astronaut, he worked in various senior positions for the air force and Nasa.
Joe Engle had two children with his first wife, Mary Lawrence. After her death, he married Jeanie Carter, who survives him.
Joe Engle, born August 26 1932, died July 10 2024