X-Press Editor

Jay Levine
P O Box 273
MS 4838
Edwards, CA 93523
(661) 276-3459
Jay.Levine-1@nasa.gov

Dryden News

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    NASA Aeronautics: Agency's 'First A' Featured At Fiesta

    Cover of X-tra featuring balloons ascending at Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

    The average person is aware that NASA is legendary for its work in space, such as the Apollo 11 mission that featured the first steps on the lunar surface by astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, 1969. In 2009, NASA celebrated the 40th anniversary of that event that still inspires people around the world.

    However, is not as widely known that before NASA sent men to the moon, the agency's aeronautics division flight-tested rocket-powered aircraft that touched the edge of space. Among the 550 hot air balloons and more than 850,000 people who attended the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta Oct. 3-11, many who visited the NASA exhibit learned more about the sleek black X-15 that 50 years ago redefined the limits of aviation and contributed to the Apollo mission.

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X-tra: Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta - 2009

NASA Aeronautics: Agency's 'First A' Featured At Fiesta

Tamera Eakes, 6, has her picture taken at a NASA photo kiosk with an assist from her dad Joseph and NASA exhibits staff member Kimberlee Buter.

The average person is aware that NASA is legendary for its work in space, such as the Apollo 11 mission that featured the first steps on the lunar surface by astronaut Neil Armstrong on July 20, ...

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Full of Hot Air: A NASA F/A-18 at the Balloon Fiesta

NASA Dryden public affairs director Kevin Rohrer (left) and Dryden life support technician Jim Sokolik set up NASA’s half-scale, inflatable F/A-18 model by the NASA exhibit at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

At an event featuring hot air balloons, NASA appropriately has an F/A-18 half-scale blow-up model airplane that makes the way to the agency's exhibit more obvious.

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Blowing in the Wind – Tunnel, That is, at Albuquerque ...

NASA exhibits and education lead Tony Springer demonstrates a flow visualization wind tunnel to help visitors conceptualize how a wind tunnel works and what it contributes to aeronautics.

Aeronautics can seem like such heady stuff, but NASA staff members at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta used a tool to bring some sky-high concepts down to Earth for Fiesta visitors.

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Hot Air, Champagne and a Sword

Tom Tschida's first hot air balloon ride.

NASA Dryden photographer Tom Tschida experienced a unique initiation after his first ride in a hot air balloon at the 2009 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

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Enthusiasm

Students at Jackson Middle School in Albuquerque take the opportunity to see a high-altitude pressure suit up close.

In presentations at four Albuquerque schools and another for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in October detailing NASA's high-altitude flight suits, one theme was consistent - ...

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X-Press: Featured Articles

  • The SOFIA flies a second checkout flight from Waco, Texas.

    The SOFIA: Key Events May Lead to First Science Data in About Two Years

    The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA made its debut at Dryden June 27 following three successful checkout flights in Waco, Texas

  • Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, unveils a plaque rededicating NASA's SOFIA aircraft as

    Lindbergh Legacy: NASA 747SP Honors Aviator's Feat

    Excitement is a cure for apathy and that's what Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, believes NASA's new airborne observatory will bring to the world.

  • photo of milky way galaxy

    Science of the SOFIA

    The only thing more impressive than an airborne observatory that carries a 17-metric-ton telescope is the potential for equally weighty new breakthroughs in astronomy.

  • Dietmar Lilienthal (foreground, gesturing), German program manager for the SOFIA, points out a feature of the NASA 747SP to a group of German dignitaries.

    Science Alliance

    For as long as humans have stared up into the night sky, curiosity about the heavens has drawn their gaze. It is this fundamental need to know the unknown - and a desire for the ever-larger telescopes needed to find it - that has led Americans and Germans to forge a partnership aimed at unlocking the mysteries of the heavens.

X-Press Publications

  • cover of aerovations magazine

    Aerovations

    The Innovative Partnerships Program acts as a pathfinder and an agent of change for new technology development through partnerships with small businesses and research institutions.

  • cover of 50th anniversary X-press

    50th Anniversary X-Press

    Dryden has made many significant contributions to NASA's mission since the agency's inception five decades ago.

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