[ Music ]
>> Three, two, one, ignition.
This is the LC Minotaur launch vehicle.
It is carrying the AA-2 Launch Abort System
for a full stress test.
[ Inaudible ]
>> Pyros one and two discharged both sides.
>> [inaudible] pressure.
>> Good control.
[ Music ]
[ Inaudible ]
>> Pyros three and four.
>> We are testing these instruments
to collect atmospheric wind, aerosol and water vapor data.
Doing this to understand how accurate these instruments are
and also to understand how we might be able
to take these instruments to space someday.
[ Inaudible ]
>> Hi, everyone.
Here we are on DC-8.
We're flying about two-thirds of the way
through our third flight, so flight number three.
As you can see, students are on board as well as about a dozen
or so different instruments.
[ Inaudible ]
>> FIREX-AQ for short, the goal is to track smoke
as it crosses North America, taking air samples ranging
from high in the sky to down on the ground
where people are breathing it.
>> The DC-8 here at NASA Armstrong support Operation
IceBridge since 2009.
This will be our seventh campaign.
>> Air-LUSI, it is designed
to measure the light reflected off the moon, and it flies
in ER-2 high-altitude airplanes.
>> Flying high in the Earth's atmosphere with SOFIA,
the world's largest airborne observatory,
scientists finally detected this elusive molecule called
"helium hydride."
[ Music ]
>> [inaudible], return to count and launch.
>> Capsule.
[ Inaudible ]
[ Blasting ]
>> SPLICE is developing a family of sensors that are acquired
to land safely and precisely on the moon, Mars,
and any other destination.
>> Ready? Here we go.
>> Here we go.
>> We are in between [inaudible].
>> [inaudible] controller.
[inaudible], three, two, one, release.
>> They'll be coming to the right
and then back around to the left.
>> The X-56A project is intended to enable the utilization
of light-efficient wings by development
of flight control technologies to suppress flutter.
>> And we're coming to the left.
>> This is one of the most heavily instrumented wings we've
ever tested.
There was about 10,000 sensors on our wing
which included fiberoptic strand sensing,
additional strand sensing, displacement sensors,
load sensing, and also inclinometers.
[ Music ]
>> Okay, [inaudible] slowing to one, three, four.
>> The project I'm working
on is the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration
into the National Airspace System.
The plan of this project is to integrate these UAS
into airspace occupied by human-piloted aircraft.
>> Stand by, please.
Tell your partner where you're going.
[ Inaudible ]
>> The use of this project is going to go for a long time
because it's going to establish a fundamental data set
on how pilots breathe in a tactical environment.
>> This particular antenna we're trying to use on the ground,
and we have a flight test campaign
to explore exactly how well we're able
to control the interference of this [inaudible] type antenna.
>> We're really excited.
We have this wing that we've been designing
for years that's been finally built and delivered,
and now we're testing it to see if it matches the performance
that we need for the X-57 vehicle.
>> X-57, it's a manned electric airplane,
and what we're doing is developing technologies related
to electric aircraft.
[ Music ]
>> Right now conventional supersonic aircraft are just way
too loud when they're supersonic, very disturbing
for people, but we're sure that we can make planes
that are quiet and still be supersonic
so we can reduce flight times in half without disturbing people.
>> Ultimately the X-59 will be creating a quiet sonic thump.
>> So what we're doing now is we're going
to take what we learned from these experiments
and we're going to apply them to the X-59 which is going
to ultimately be flown in the year 2021 so that
for the first time we can get regulations on the books
in the United States of America that say you can fly supersonic.