"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
ink.net...

"Tom Sixkiller" wrote in message
...

Doesn't NASA have a bunch already? Weren't Neil Armstrong during
Gemini and Apollo, and Harrison Schmidt on Apollo 14, civilians?


Yes, of course. The first civilian astronaut was Joseph Walker, who flew
the X-15 to an altitude of 347,800 feet on July 19, 1963.

Were the X-15 pilots classified as "astronauts"?