Category: Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate

2025 in Review: Highlights from NASA in Silicon Valley 

NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley continued to make strides in research, technology, engineering, science, and innovation this past year. Join us as we take a look back at some of the highlights from 2025. From Supercomputers to Wind Tunnels: NASA’s Road to Artemis II By combining the technologies of the NASA Advanced […]

NASA Ignites New Golden Age of Exploration, Innovation in 2025

With a second Trump Administration at the helm in 2025, NASA marked significant progress toward the Artemis II test flight early next year, which is the first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years, as well as built upon its momentum toward a human return to the lunar surface in preparation to […]

NASA Works with Boeing, Other Collaborators Toward More Efficient Global Flights 

Picture this: You’re just about done with a transoceanic flight, and the tracker in your seat-back screen shows you approaching your destination airport. And then … you notice your plane is moving away. Pretty far away. You approach again and again, only to realize you’re on a long, circling loop that can last an hour […]

NASA’s X-59 Completes First Flight, Prepares for More Flight Testing

After years of design, development, and testing, NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft took to the skies for the first time Oct. 28, marking a historic moment for the field of aeronautics research and the agency’s Quesst mission. The X-59, designed to fly at supersonic speeds and reduce the sound of loud sonic booms to […]

2025-2026 DWU: Middle School Aviation Challenge

2025-2026 DWU: Middle School Aviation Challenge Challenge Theme AgAir: Integrating UAS into the Agriculture Industry The agricultural industry is an important part of life in the US and around the world by providing food, fuel, economic development, and more. It has been increasingly important to strategically improve the agricultural industry to continue to provide for […]

NASA, Partners Push Forward with Remotely Piloted Airspace Integration 

NASA and its partners recently tested a tool for remotely piloted operations that could enable operators to transport people and goods more efficiently within urban areas.   The team’s goal is to ensure that when these remotely piloted aircraft – including electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOLs) – take to the skies, air traffic controllers […]

NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at 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. First flight will be a lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing […]

NASA’s X-59 Moves Toward First Flight at 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. First flight will be a lower-altitude loop at about 240 mph to check system integration, kicking off a phase of flight testing […]

NASA Tests Tools to Assess Drone Safety Over Cities

A future with advanced air mobility aircraft populating the skies will require the U.S. to implement enhanced preflight planning that can mitigate potential risks well before takeoff – and NASA is working to develop the tools to make that happen.  Preflight planning is critical to ensuring safety in the complex, high-risk environments of the future […]