Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

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An aircraft resting on a section of runway as seen from the front, with its nose facing the camera. The early morning sky is orange in the background.

March 18, 2026

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft is preparing for its second flight, a step that will set the pace for more flight…

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An aircraft resting on a section of runway as seen from the side. The X-59 has a long, thin nose that accounts for nearly a third of its length, along with sleek wings and an engine mounted above its body, just below its tail. The early morning sky is dark in the background with the sunrise just starting to emerge.

March 17, 2026

NASA will hold a media teleconference at 5:30 p.m. EDT on Thursday, March 19 to highlight plans for…

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A shock wave interacting with a thin layer of fluid at Mach 10 in a wind tunnel, as captured by the Self-Aligned Focusing Schlieren (SAFS) system invented in 2020 by researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. Compared to conventional Schlieren imaging it eliminates irrelevant features such astunnel boundary layers, off-plane shockwaves, and flow structures from temperature variations outside the wind tunnel.

February 20, 2026

Imagine trying to photograph wind. That’s similar to what NASA engineers dealt with during a recent effort to…

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NASA Advances High-Altitude Traffic Management - NASA

February 18, 2026

High-altitude flight is getting increasing attention from sectors ranging from telecommunications to emergency response. To make that airspace more accessible,…

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February 12, 2026

NASA completed the first flight test of a scale-model wing designed to improve laminar flow, reducing drag and lowering fuel costs for future commercial aircraft. The flight took…

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The SpaceWorks X-60 rocket is pictured in flight in the upper atmosphere, with the curvature of the Earth below it.

February 1, 2026

While NASA is working with U.S. aviation to explore commercial supersonic technologies, the agency is also looking forward…

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A hybrid engine, with its intake facing the camera, is mounted into a large, white scaffolding system. In the scaffolding structure to the hybrid engine’s left is a monitoring station in a modified shipping container. A series of pipes and wires to the engine’s right and above it, connecting the unit to the systems that provide it with fuel and collect data on its operations.

January 27, 2026

To an untrained eye, the aircraft engine sitting outside of a Cincinnati facility in December might have looked like…

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NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation

January 22, 2026

NASA researchers successfully completed a high-speed taxi test of a scale model of a design that could make…

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NASA Ignites New Golden Age of Exploration, Innovation in 2025

December 17, 2025

With a second Trump Administration at the helm in 2025, NASA marked significant progress toward the Artemis II…

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Two maintainers in white protective suits, air tanks, masks, rubber gloves, and boots check NASA’s X-59 hydrazine system during a hydrazine safety check at U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. The sky is slightly overcast, with some sunlight rays beginning to peek out from behind the clouds. The aircraft has a panel open, a ladder positioned on the right side of its fuselage, and air ducts extending from the aircraft into a service cart.

September 13, 2025

As NASA’s one-of-a-kind X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft approaches first flight, its team is mapping every step from…

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Two men stand in an office looking at four smaller computer screens and one larger computer screen. There is a tan desk in the foreground housing two computer monitors and a small grey drone. In the background stands a man in a white polo shirt facing two other computer monitors on a desk. Behind this set up is a large TV monitor with a man standing with his arm reached out in front. The man is wearing a black polo shorts and tan shorts as well as white tennis shoes. The screen shows a map and different pieces of software working in unison.

August 23, 2025

A future with advanced air mobility aircraft populating the skies will require the U.S. to implement enhanced preflight…

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NASA test pilot Nils Larson walks around an F-15B aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. He wears a green G-suit over his tan flight suit and looks up at the nose of the aircraft. The F-15 canopy is open, and support crew stand near the aircraft as the pilots walks around. The aircraft sits higher than the pilot, allowing a partial view of the area on the opposite side.

July 26, 2025

In a stretch of California’s Mojave Desert, NASA conducted a full-scale “dress rehearsal” to prepare how it will…

Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

NASA’s X-59 Prepares for Second Flight

NASA Invites Media to Learn About Upcoming X-59 Test Flights

Award-Winning NASA Camera Revolutionizes How We See the Invisible

NASA Advances High-Altitude Traffic Management – NASA

NASA Completes First Flight of Laminar Flow Scaled Wing Design

NASA Aims to Advance Hypersonic Flight Testing with New Awards

NASA, GE Aerospace Hybrid Engine System Marks Successful Test

NASA Tests Technology Offering Potential Fuel Savings for Commercial Aviation

NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at Speed of Safety

NASA Tests Tools to Assess Drone Safety Over Cities

NASA Rehearses How to Measure X-59’s Noise Levels