In 1985, an American Fighter Jet Climbed Straight Up and Shot Down a Satellite 345 Miles Above the Pacific. It Has Never Been Done Again.

In 1985, an American Fighter Jet Climbed Straight Up and Shot Down a Satellite 345 Miles Above the Pacific. It Has Never Been Done Again.

F-15 Aerospace History: The maneuver had no precedent in fighter aviation. Two hundred miles west of Vandenberg Air Force Base, Maj. Wilbert “Doug” Pearson pushed his F-15A, serial 76-0084, nicknamed the Celestial Eagle, to Mach 1.22 over the Pacific, then hauled the jet into a 3.8g pull to a 65-degree climb, a zoom profile designed to throw the aircraft up through 38,000 feet like the first stage of a rocket. As the Eagle’s speed decayed back t…