{"id":140961,"date":"2026-01-28T08:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/140961\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T08:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T08:58:16","slug":"nasa-plane-makes-belly-landing-at-ellington-airfield-in-houston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/140961\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA plane makes belly landing at Ellington Airfield in Houston"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">A NASA WB-57 aircraft made a gear-up landing at Ellington Airfield in Houston on Tuesday following a mechanical issue. All crew members were reported safe, according to NASA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The aircraft involved was a WB-57, a high-altitude research plane operated by NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Bethany Stevens, a spokesperson for NASA, said on X that a mechanical issue with one of the agency\u2019s WB-57 aircraft led to a gear-up landing at Ellington Field. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cResponse to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time,\u201d Stevens said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">She added that NASA will conduct a thorough investigation into the cause and will provide updates as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The WB-57 is a long-range aircraft capable of flying for extended periods of time from sea level to altitudes above 60,000 feet. It is designed to carry scientific payloads and is operated by a pilot and a sensor equipment operator seated in tandem.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">NASA officials have not released details about what caused the issue or whether anyone was injured. The agency owns and operates the aircraft through NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Statement from Jim Szczesniak, Director of Aviation for Houston Airports: <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Around 11:30 a.m. today, a NASA aircraft had an issue upon landing on Runway 17R-35L at Ellington Airport (EFD).First responders with a military subcontractor are responding to the incident. The runway is closed until the aircraft can be removed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A NASA WB-57 aircraft made a gear-up landing at Ellington Airfield in Houston on Tuesday following a mechanical&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,1911,29694,59156],"class_list":["post-140961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-nasa","tag-nasas-johnson-space-center","tag-wb-57"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}