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Thursday, May 22, 2008 X-48B BLENDED WING BODY FLIGHT TESTS ENTER SECOND PHASE By FlyingNews @ 9:58 AM :: 313 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and The Boeing Co. are expanding the flight envelope for the X-48B blended wing body research aircraft. Flight tests with the 500-pound, remotely piloted test vehicle are now in a second phase involving higher speed regimes. The 21-foot wing span test aircraft is flying without its slats deployed. Slats are flight control surfaces on the leading edges of wings which, when extended, allow an aircraft to take off, fly and land at slower speeds. X-48B flight testing is taking place at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. NASA Dryden is providing critical support to a Boeing-led project team that also includes the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, and Cranfield Aerospace Ltd., of Bedford, England. Read More..

Friday, May 02, 2008 Subcommittee Examines NASA’s Aeronautics R&D Program By FlyingNews @ 7:02 AM :: 312 Views :: 0 Comments :: Government, NASA Today, the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics held a hearing to review NASA’s current Aeronautics R&D program and discuss ways to make it more relevant to the nation’s needs. This hearing is part of a series of oversight hearings to review the major programs and to provide input to the Committee’s NASA reauthorization legislative activity. Among other topics, the hearing examined the R&D challenges related to the environmental impacts of aviation, safety, and development of the nation’s next generation air transportation system. Read More..

Tuesday, December 18, 2007 NASA to Begin Testing of Engine That Will Power Ares Rockets By FlyingNews @ 7:14 AM :: 356 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA In December, NASA will begin testing core components of a rocket engine from the Apollo era. Data from the tests will help NASA build the next generation engine that will power the nation's new Ares launch vehicles on voyages that will send humans to the moon. NASA will test the engine's powerpack, a gas generator and turbopumps that perform the rocket engine's major pumping and combustion work. These components originally delivered propellants to the Apollo-era J-2 engine that fueled the second stage of the Saturn V rockets. NASA is using these heritage parts to develop a new engine, known as the J2-X, to power the upper stages of both the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle. Results from the tests will help engineers modify the machinery to meet the higher performance requirements of these two next-generation rockets. Read More..

Thursday, December 13, 2007 NASA Sends Spacecraft on Mission to Comet Hartley 2 By FlyingNews @ 8:49 PM :: 361 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA NASA has approved the retargeting of the Epoxi mission for a flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Oct. 11, 2010. Hartley 2 was chosen as Epoxi's destination after the initial target, comet Boethin, could not be found. Scientists theorize comet Boethin may have broken up into pieces too small for detection. The Epoxi mission melds two compelling science investigations -- the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization and the Deep Impact Extended Investigation. Both investigations will be performed using the Deep Impact spacecraft. Read More..

Wednesday, November 14, 2007 NASA's DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory Returns to Dryden By FlyingNews @ 9:42 PM :: 357 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA NASA's DC-8 airborne science laboratory returned to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently after an absence of more than two years. The venerable flying science lab's missions had been managed by the University of North Dakota since late 2005, although Dryden flight crews continued to operate the aircraft on worldwide data gathering missions. The converted jetliner is the first science aircraft to be based at Dryden's new Aircraft Operations Facility adjacent to Air Force Plant 42 in nearby Palmdale. Four other NASA science aircraft are due to be based there in coming months. Read More..

Friday, November 09, 2007 NASA Pilot Edwin Lewis Dies in Crash By FlyingNews @ 5:34 PM :: 429 Views :: 0 Comments :: Flying Accidents, NASA Edwin W. Lewis Jr., a research pilot at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., died in the crash of a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182 the evening of Nov. 8. Lewis was flying with another Civil Air Patrol member who also perished in the aircraft when it crashed southwest of Las Vegas. Read More..

Wednesday, October 24, 2007 NASA Aircraft Aiding Southern California Firefighting Effort By FlyingNews @ 3:10 PM :: 311 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA In response to a request from the California Office of Emergency Services and the National Interagency Fire Center, NASA is flying an aircraft equipped with sophisticated infrared imaging equipment today to assist firefighters battling several of the Southern California wildfires. The Ikhana unmanned aircraft system, a Predator B modified for civil science and research missions, was launched about 8:45 a.m. PDT from its base at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. It is expected to fly over the major blazes burning in the Lake Arrowhead and Running Springs areas and possibly down into San Diego County to image wildfires raging in that area. The aircraft is controlled remotely by pilots in a ground control station at NASA Dryden. Read More..

Wednesday, October 17, 2007 NASA Set To Begin Space Shuttle Discovery Countdown Oct. 20 By FlyingNews @ 5:54 PM :: 319 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA will start the launch countdown for space shuttle Discovery's STS-120 mission at 2 p.m. EDT Saturday, Oct. 20, at T-43 hours. The countdown includes 26 hours and 38 minutes of built-in hold time leading to a preferred launch time of approximately 11:38 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23. The launch window extends an additional five minutes. During the 14-day mission to the International Space Station, Discovery's crew will add the Node 2 module to the expanding station. Node 2, known as Harmony, will provide attachment points for European and Japanese laboratory modules to be installed later this year and early in 2008, respectively. The Discovery crew also will move the station's Port 6 segment of the station's backbone, or truss, and its solar arrays to a permanent position at the very end of the left side of the truss. The flight will include five spacewalks. Read More..

Saturday, October 13, 2007 SOFIA Airborne Observatory Begins Flight Test Phase By FlyingNews @ 6:22 PM :: 343 Views :: 0 Comments :: NASA NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, has begun a series of flight tests intended to confirm the structural integrity and performance of the highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft. The current tests, which began Thursday Oct. 11, are the first of several flight and ground-test phases required to verify that the unique airborne observatory is ready to perform its future astronomical science mission. Thursday's flight lasted just over five hours and was conducted by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in restricted test airspace northwest of Edwards Air Force Base in Southern California. Read More..

Saturday, August 11, 2007 Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Main Engines Add New Measure of Safety to Space Station-Bound Shuttle By FlyingNews @ 8:42 AM :: 610 Views :: 0 Comments :: Aerospace, NASA Three Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne Space Shuttle Main Engines, fitted with upgraded controllers to actively monitor engine health and performance, powered the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center today. The Endeavour is on Mission STS-118 to the International Space Station (ISS). Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) is a United Technologies Corp. [NYSE:UTX] company and has powered the Space Shuttle since its first mission in 1981. This successful launch comes just days after NASA awarded Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne a nearly $1 billion contract extension to continue maintaining the agency’s fleet of Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs). Read More..

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