Browse Archive

  • NASA and Lancaster officials planting moon tree

    Commemorative Moon Tree Planted

    Retired NASA astronaut Gordon Fullerton, Lancaster vice-mayor Ron Smith, Apollo 17 commander Gene Cernan and NASA Dryden acting deputy director Gwen Young join retired NASA astronaut James McDivitt in wielding shovels at the planting of a commemorative moon tree.

  • The X-15 research aircraft on its first powered flight on Sept. 17, 1959.

    The X-15, the Pilot and the Space Shuttle

    Fifty years later, X-15 test pilot and former space shuttle commander Joe Engle recalls the highs and lows of this unique, high-speed research aircraft.

  • Space shuttle Discovery lands

    Space Shuttle Discovery Returns To Earth After Successful Mission

    Space shuttle Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts ended a 14-day journey of more than 5.7 million miles with a 5:53 p.m. PDT / 8:53 p.m. EDT landing Friday at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

  • SOFIA infrared observatory 747SP overflies the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility.

    NASA Awards SOFIA Engineering Contract Option

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center has awarded a contract modification to L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, L.P., of Waco, Texas, for further developmental engineering on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

  • F-18s in flight

    NASA to Conduct Sonic Boom Research Over Edwards AFB

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center will conduct a series of research flights on Sept. 9 and 12 that will result in multiple sonic booms being heard on Edwards Air Force Base.

  • Dryden Flight Research Center - aircraft fleet on ramp

    NASA Awards Aircraft Maintenance Pact to Computer Sciences Corp

    NASA has awarded a follow-on contract to Computer Sciences Corp.'s Applied Technology Group of Fort Worth, Texas, to support the agency's aircraft used for astronaut training, flight research and mission and program support.

  • G-III shows off its new paint job.

    NASA Dryden's Second G-III Shows its Colors

    NASA Dryden's second Gulfstream III, tail number 803, recently rolled out of the Edwards Air Force Base paint hangar sporting a new paint job.

  • Technicians at NASA Dryden install the goalpost fixture to the Orion crew module integration stand during conversion of the stand into a transportation fixture for airlift of the module to the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

    Orion Abort Flight Test Crew Module Departs Dryden For White Sands

    The Orion crew module that will be used for the first launch abort system Pad Abort 1 flight test is scheduled to depart NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center Aug. 19 for the White Sands Missile Range, N.M., where the launch abort flight tests will be performed.

  • Rafe Day and Daniel Tkacik aboard DC-8

    Down Syndrome Lab Assistant Flies on NASA DC-8

    Rafe Day wasn't the typical Earth scientist flying on NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory this summer.

  • Framed by the flags fluttering over the outfield fence, NASA Dryden T-38 and F/A-18 aircraft performed a low-level flyby past Clear Channel Stadium in Lancaster, Calif., the evening of Aug. 15 as part of the Lancaster JetHawks Aerospace Appreciation Night.

    Aerospace Appreciation Night Flyover

    Framed by the flags fluttering over the outfield fence, NASA Dryden T-38 and F/A-18 aircraft performed a low-level flyby past Clear Channel Stadium in Lancaster, Calif., the evening of Aug. 15 as part of the Lancaster JetHawks Aerospace Appreciation Night.

  • Retired NASA Astronaut Vance Brand, (center), assisted by Steve Schmidt, director of NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility and Mayor James Ledford of the City of Palmdale, Calif., planted a Moon Tree sycamore sapling at the AERO Institute in the Palmdale Civic Center during ceremonies Thursday evening, Aug. 13.

    NASA Astronaut Vance Brand Plants ‘Moon Tree’ in Palmdale

    Retired NASA Astronaut Vance Brand, (center), assisted by Steve Schmidt, director of NASA Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility and Mayor James Ledford of the City of Palmdale, Calif., planted a "Moon Tree" sycamore sapling at the AERO Institute in the Palmdale Civic Center.

  • Flight test engineers Marta Bohn-Meyer and Bob Meyer and research pilots Eddie Schneider and Rogers Smith who flew the famed SR-71 Blackbird during high-speed research experiments at NASA Dryden during the 1990s.

    Lancaster Jethawks Honor Last SR-71 Flight Crews

    The last four crew members who flew aboard the famed triple-sonic Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird aircraft will be honored this Saturday evening, Aug. 15, by the Lancaster JetHawks baseball team during the team’s annual Aerospace Appreciation Weekend at Clear Channel Stadium in Lancaster.

  • Fullerton talks with cooperative education student Erin Waggoner.

    Apollo's Legacy: Moon Missions Continue To Inspire The World

    Retired NASA astronaut, space shuttle commander and research pilot Gordon Fullerton discussed the legacy of the Apollo 11 moon landing recently before a standing-room-only audience of employees and educators at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.

  • A Dryden technician checks out the rake portion of the Rake Airflow Gage Experiment.

    Rake Airflow Gage Experiment Flies Again on NASA F-15B

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently conducted a flight test of an airflow-measurement device mounted underneath its F-15B research aircraft in the Rake Airflow Gage Experiment, or RAGE.

  • The synthetic aperture radar pod is slung beneath NASA's Gulfstream-III research testbed.

    NASA's G-III and UAVSAR Conducting East Coast Vegetation Study

    NASA's Gulfstream-III environmental science research aircraft is conducting a two-week radar imaging mission along the East Coast.

  • F-16D aircraft takes off from Edwards Air Force Base.

    Collision Avoidance Technology Flying Again at Dryden

    Dryden is working with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to develop collision avoidance technologies for fighter/attack aircraft that would reduce the risk of ground and mid-air collisions in the Fighter Risk Reduction Project.

  • The late Joseph Algranti maneuvers the first Lunar Landing Research Vehicle – or LLRV – over Edwards Air Force Base’ South Base ramp area on Aug. 19, 1966. NASA Dryden contributed to the design concept and conducted flight testing of the unique craft. The two LLRVs, and their follow-on Lunar Landing Training Vehicles – or LLTVs – prepared Apollo astronauts for their landings on the moon.

    The LLRV / LLTV – Preparing Apollo’s Astronauts for Landing on the Moon

    Following the challenge by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 to land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth, two separate entities began working on a way to prepare astronauts for the critical descent and landing on the moon. The problems facing them were considerable: how to build a free-flying simulator that could negate 5/6ths of the Earth's gravity while entirely eliminating the effects of the atmosphere, since the moon had no atmosphere and only 1/6th of Earth's gravity.

  • Michigan State University student and NASA intern Scott Buffa sits in the cockpit of an F-18 aircraft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

    Michigan University Student Interning At NASA Field Center

    Scott Buffa gave up a summer in cool, rainy Rochester, Mich., for an opportunity to work with NASA as an Undergraduate Student Research Program intern at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

  • DC-8 heads for landing in Palmdale, CA

    NASA Student Airborne Research Program Takes Flight

    Twenty-nine undergraduate and graduate students are participating in a six-week NASA Airborne Science field experience designed to immerse them in NASA's Earth Science research.

  • Dryden's F/A-18 in flight.

    NASA Dryden Participating in Airventure 2009 at Oskosh

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., is again participating in America's largest air show.