The maximum speed The distance to which a human being has traveled was not reached in a car, nor in a military plane, nor in a boat designed to slide to the limit on the water. The absolute record It belongs to space and the crew of Apollo 10 has ita mission that did not even land on the Moon, but on its return to Earth converted its three astronauts in humans who have moved at the fastest speed in history.
Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugene Cernan they reached almost 40,000 km/h he May 26, 1969 during the reentry of the Apollo 10 command module. NASA sets that speed at about 39,900 km/hduring the return from the Moon. The figure remains the historical reference, although more recent missions such as Artemis II They have once again approached those reentry speeds without officially exceeding it.
This is because, although in low orbit the ships already move at enormous speeds, of about 28,000 km/hReturning from the Moon adds another level of energy. The capsule falls towards Earth from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and reaches the atmosphere in a fireball. Even so, Its occupants do not feel that speed as a pilot would feel inside a car or plane.because they travel alongside the ship.
A car at supersonic speed
The highest land speed record is on a different scale, although it also borders on the absurd. He October 15, 1997the British pilot Andy Green reached an official average of 1,227.985 km/h with the ThrustSSC in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. Was the first land vehicle to officially break the sound barrierwith two jet engines Rolls-Royce Spey and a track laid out on a dry plain.
Unlike a conventional car, the ThrustSSC it did not move pushed by its wheels. These only served to support and guide the vehicle, while the thrust came from the jet engines. In practice it was almost a plane without wingsdesigned to stay stuck to the surface while passing through the air at supersonic speed. That’s why the record continues to have a mix of mechanical achievement and physical challenge. At those speeds, the biggest problem is not only accelerating, but preventing the vehicle from destabilizing, lifting or destroying itself before braking.
A record on water so dangerous that no one has managed to beat it in almost half a century
Over water, the record is considerably smaller, but probably more dangerous. The Australian Ken Warby reached a little more than 511 km/h in 1978 with the Spirit of Australiaa hydroplane with a jet engine built largely by himself. The data is usually presented as a nautical speed record, although it was not achieved in the open sea, but in the Blowering Reservoir, in New South Wales.
That precision matters, because at more than 500 km/h the water stops behaving like a docile surface. Any small wave, bounce or change in angle can turn the boat into an uncontrollable projectile. Warby’s record has not been broken for almost half a century. It was tried later, but The two subsequent official attempts ended with the deaths of their pilots, Lee Taylor in 1980 and Craig Arfons in 1989.. Since then there have been new projects, but none have officially managed to surpass the Spirit of Australia’s 511 km/h.
The only pilot who has reached Mach 6.7
In the air, the most cited record for a manned aircraft belongs to North American X-15A-2a rocket plane launched from a bomber B-52. He October 3, 1967, William ‘Pete’ Knight took him up Mach 6.7some 7,274 km/ha speed that remains the highest achieved by a manned aircraft.
The X-15 was not a conventional aircraft, but a hypersonic laboratory with a pilot. It flew for just a few minutes on its rocket motor, climbed to the edge of space, and then glided back to earth. His record helps explain why air must be separated from space. The X-15 remains the king among manned aircraftbut the capsules that return from the Moon play in another league.
The comparison leaves a clear scale. in the waterthe human being has exceeded 500 km/h. Ashorehas exceeded 1,200 km/h. In the airhas reached more than 7,000 km/h inside a rocket plane. in spaceduring the return from the Moon, has touched 40,000 km/h.
The absolute record, therefore, does not belong to the most spectacular vehicle nor to the pilot who had the greatest physical sensation of going to the limit, but to three astronauts locked in a conical capsule returning from the general rehearsal for the first moon landing that Apollo 11 would carry out two months later. Apollo 10 did not set foot on the Moon, but it left a record that still stands more than half a century later.