Browse Archive

  • Dryden Center Director Kevin Petersen

    NASA Dryden Director Kevin Petersen to Retire in April

    Kevin L. Petersen, director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center, has announced he plans to retire from NASA, effective April 3.

  • The gantry for stacking the Orion Launch Abort System for upcoming Abort Flight Tests at White Sands Missile Range is shown during construction.

    Launch Complex Ready For Orion’s First Abort Flight Test

    NASA has completed work on a 92-acre launch complex that will serve as the test site for abort flight tests of its newest spacecraft, the Orion crew exploration vehicle, which is intended to take astronauts back to the moon.

  • Daniel J. Crowley, director of Facilities Engineering and Asset Management at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.

    NASA Presents Safety Award to Dryden Facilities Chief Dan Crowley

    NASA has presented its Quality and Safety Achievement Recognition, or QASAR, award for 2008 to Daniel J. Crowley, director of Facilities Engineering and Asset Management at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center.

  • Using a model Ferris wheel connected to a small solar panel, NASA Dryden Digital Learning Network coordinator David Alexander demonstrates solar power to children attending the AERO Institute’s Family Night.

    NASA Education Family Night Focuses on Space Education

    More than a score of children and their parents learned about flying in space during a hands-on NASA Education Family Night focusing on the upcoming STS-119 space shuttle mission at the AERO Institute in Palmdale Feb. 19.

  • This modified Lockheed JetStar business jet was flown by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on a variety of significant aeronautical research projects from 1964 through 1989.

    Lockheed JetStar

    This modified Lockheed JetStar business jet was flown by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on a variety of significant aeronautical research projects from 1964 through 1989.

  • NASA Dryden research pilot Jim Smolka and operations engineer Leslie Molzahn demonstrate the partial pressure suits they wear when flying high-performance aircraft.

    NASA Dryden supports Bohn-Meyer Math, Science Odyssey

    More than 250 eighth grade students from eight schools experienced hands-on science and engineering during the Bohn-Meyer Math and Science Odyssey Feb. 6 at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, Calif.

  • With its afterburners roaring, NASA research pilot Jim Smolka pulls NASAs highly modified NF-15B research aircraft into a steep climb after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base on its final flight on Jan. 30, 2009.

    NASA’s NF-15B Research Aircraft Flies Final Mission

    With its afterburners roaring, NASA research pilot Jim Smolka pulls NASA's highly modified NF-15B research aircraft into a steep climb after takeoff from Edwards Air Force Base on its final flight.

  • A maze of wires and tubing to connect data-collection instrumentation to the control centers is laid out on the pavement beside NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory

    Alternative Jet Fuels Put to the Test at NASA Dryden

    NASA and 11 other research groups are testing two non-petroleum-based jet fuels in the pursuit of alternative fuels.

  • NASA Dryden's NF-15B tail number 837's canards are titled down during a pre-flight control check prior to a Lancets project flight on Jan. 12, 2009.

    Lancets Flights Probe Supersonic Shockwaves

    NASA is concluding a series of flight tests to measure shock waves generated by an F-15 jet, in an effort to validate computer models that could be used in designing quieter supersonic aircraft.

  • NASA Dryden Flight Research Center director Kevin L. Petersen addresses dignitaries and news media representatives during unveiling of NASA's first Global Hawk autonomously operated aircraft at the center Jan. 15.

    NASA Debuts Global Hawk Autonomous Aircraft for Earth Science

    NASA and Northrop Grumman Corporation have unveiled the first Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system to be used for environmental science research, heralding a new application for the world’s first fully autonomous high-altitude, long-endurance aircraft.    Related Story

  • Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft departs Edwards Air Force Base.

    NASA Dryden Marked Major Milestones in 2008

    NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center supported projects and efforts across NASA's four mission areas during 2008.

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft flies over California's Mojave Desert on the first leg of its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 10, 2008.

    Endeavour Returns to Kennedy Space Center

    The final leg of Space Shuttle Endeavour's cross-country ferry flight was completed Dec. 12, 2008 when it landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast. The Endeavour and its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft took off from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., at noon and arrived at Kennedy at mid-afternoon.

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards AFB on Nov. 30, 2008 to conclude International Space Station assembly and supply mission STS-126.

    Shuttle Endeavour Lands Sunday at Edwards AFB

    After an almost 16-day mission to the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle Endeavour has landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Southern California high desert. Endeavour descended under clear blue skies under bright afternoon sun, a loud sonic boom announcing its arrival over the desert airbase.

  • SOFIA's infrared telescope in the rear fuselage during nighttime testing.

    HIPO Photometer Installed on SOFIA Telescope

    The High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultation, or HIPO, instrument was installed on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy telescope Nov. 17.

  • David D. McBride Deputy Director

    David McBride Appointed Deputy Director at NASA Dryden

    David D. McBride has been appointed deputy director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

  • Rake Airflow Gage Experiment flight

    Rake Airflow Gage Experiment Flies on NASA F-15B

    Dryden recently conducted a flight test of an airflow-measurement device mounted underneath its F-15B research aircraft.

  • x-15 in flight

    Final Flight of the X-15 Left a Legacy of Success

    If residents of Western Nevada had looked high up in the sky on the morning of Oct. 24, 1968, they might have seen the sun glinting off the fuselage of a silver, eight-engine NB-52A Stratofortress as it made a graceful turn over Smith Ranch Dry Lake.

  • SOFIA in flight.

    Scientists Selected for New Airborne Eye on the Universe

    Three astronomers to participate in first scientific observations to be conducted by the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

  • SOFIAs primary mirror assembly is lifted above wing level prior to its reinstallation in the telescope cavity of NASAs 747 airborne observatory Oct. 8, 2008.

    NASA Reinstalls Main Mirror in SOFIA Airborne Observatory

    Engineers and technicians from NASA, the German Space Agency and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut recently reinstalled the German-built primary mirror assembly into NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, airborne observatory.

  • Orion pad abort crew module is lifted by a crane and placed on instrumented jacks

    Orion Gets a Lift

    Recently, the Orion pad abort crew module was lifted by crane and placed on instrumented jacks at NASA Dryden to determine the vehicle's weight, balance and vertical center of gravity.