NASA Armstrong

Preparing today for tomorrow's mission! ⭐ Supersonic flight, next generation aircraft, advanced air mobility, climate changes, human exploration of space, and the next innovation are just some of the topics our teams focused on in 2024. 🔗: go.nasa.gov/3DrkqOW

50 years ago today: the final flight of NASA's lifting body program Tom McMurtry flew the "Flying Flatiron"—the X-24B—for its final flight #OTD in 1975. This flight closed out the lifting body program, essential for developing the space shuttle: go.nasa.gov/44hZFja

The X-59 has touched down at its new home! On Oct. 28, 2025, the X-59 completed its first flight, taking off from the @LockheedMartin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, and landing at @EdwardsAFB after a 67-minute flight. The quiet supersonic research aircraft then…

NASA took a major step toward redefining high-speed flight on Nov. 16, 2004. The X-43A, a small, experimental aircraft, proved that an engine drawing oxygen from the atmosphere could propel an aircraft to hypersonic speeds – greater than Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.…

Celebrating 79 Years of Innovation! 🎉 ✈️ Today marks NASA Armstrong’s 79th anniversary! For nearly eight decades, our center has been at the forefront of advancing aeronautics, space exploration, and Earth science through cutting-edge flight research and technology…

How do we find the minerals that are critical to our economy and national security? @NASA and @USGS have teamed up on a mission called GEMx that can spot the unique fingerprints of different minerals from above. ✈️

✈️ Mission Complete! NASA Armstrong’s high-flying ER-2 aircraft has completed its 2025 support of the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), a multi-year NASA-U.S. Geological Survey campaign to map critical mineral resources across the Western U.S. 🌍 The 36th and final…

How do you advance a technology concept for missions on Earth and beyond? You test it in flight. ✈️ At NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, researchers are building a large subscale aircraft to support increasingly complex flight research. Once…

“Always take the job seriously, but never take yourself seriously.” NASA test pilot Bill Dana flew the final powered flight of the X-24B lifting body 50 years ago today—wearing pink boots. Read about Dana's legacy and how the pink boots came to be: go.nasa.gov/46jJPpP

Approaching first flight at the speed of safety! ✈️ As NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft approaches first flight, its team is mapping every step from taxi and takeoff to cruising and landing – and their decision-making is guided by safety. Take a…

Each year, we pause and honor the Americans who died in the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. We will always remember. go.nasa.gov/3Ii0XCV

The success of the astronauts who landed the Apollo lunar module on the Moon was in part due to their training with the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (LLRV) and its successor, the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV). #DYK that the LLRV project began before NASA had decided on…

Your name goes here! We’re collecting names to fly around the Moon. 3.4 million of you joined us for Artemis I. How many of you would like to come along with the Artemis II mission? go.nasa.gov/artemisnames

Deadline extended ‼️ RSVP by Sept. 26 for NASA Armstrong’s Partnership Days on Oct. 21-22, 2025.

You might already know that cast members of Star Trek's original series were at the rollout of NASA's first space shuttle—the "Enterprise"—in September 1976. But did you know that some of them visited @NASAArmstrong Flight Research Center almost a decade earlier? #StarTrekDay

Attention middle & high schoolers! The 5th @NASA TechRise Student Challenge is now open. Submit an idea for a chance to fly your experiment on a NASA-sponsored suborbital spacecraft with @virgingalactic or a high-altitude balloon with @WorldViewSpace. Learn more:…

For #TBT we look back to Sept 13, 1977, when the Enterprise orbiter had just completed its second free flight of the Approach and Landing Tests. In this scene, the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft and five T-38s fly over Enterprise, parked on the runway at Edwards AFB.

#ICYMI Join NASA Armstrong’s Partnership Days on Oct. 21-22, 2025, and explore opportunities to collaborate on groundbreaking research and development! Whether you’re an industry leader or government entity, this is your chance to connect with NASA experts and shape the future…

This #LaborDay, we thank the NASA People who make up a diverse workforce of civil servants, U.S. contractors, academia, and commercial partners working together to explore, discover, and expand knowledge for the benefit of humanity. go.nasa.gov/4mb9NR7

Did you know that a fiber thinner than a strand of hair is revolutionizing how we measure strain and heat on aircraft? ⭐ NASA’s Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS) uses thin optical fibers to measure strain and heat on aircraft and other structures. It can be used in the medical…

The X-15 experimental aircraft achieved its first hypersonic flight on June 23, 1961, soaring at speeds over five times the speed of sound. Later, the X-43A reached about 7,000 mph using innovative engines that harnessed atmospheric oxygen. For nearly eight decades, NASA…