Joe Engle

Who is Joe Engle?

Joe Henry Engle is a retired U.S. Air Force Major General and a former NASA astronaut. He was married to Mary Catherine Lawrence of Mission Hills, Kansas and has two grown children and one stepchild. He is currently married to Jeanie Carter Engle of Houston, Texas. Engle's recreational interests include flying, big game hunting, back-packing and athletics. He received a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 1955. He was a member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Engle test-flew the joint NASA-Air Force X-15 rocket airplane. During the course of testing, Engle earned his USAF astronaut wings, a Distinguished Flying Cross and other awards. Engle was selected by NASA in 1966 for the Apollo program, and was originally schedule to land on the Moon as Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 17, but was bumped when later flights were cancelled, so that geologist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt could fly. He subsequently became one of the first astronauts in the Space Shuttle program, having flight tested the Space Shuttle Enterprise in 1977. He was commander of the second orbital test flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1981.