The Air Force had instituted the practice of awarding Air Force Astronaut wings to any Air Force pilot who flew above fifty miles. They used the term itself: astronaut. As a result, White and Rushworth, the Air Force’s prime and backup pilots for the X–15, now had their astronaut wings. Joe Walker, being a civilian flying the X–15 for NASA, did not qualify. So some of Walker’s good buddies at Edwards took him out to a restaurant for dinner, and they all knocked back a few, and they pinned some cardboard wings on his chest. The inscription read: “Asstronaut.”
