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DFRC Severe Weather Instructions

Employee procedures for determining if Dryden is open for a normal workday during severe weather conditions.

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Careers at Dryden

Join the excitement! Be a part of the Dryden team.

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DFRC Tour Information

Instructions for booking group and individual tours of Dryden Flight Research Center

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Índice de los Páginas del Web de Dryden en Español

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Dryden News

    Alternative Jet Fuels Put to the Test at NASA Dryden

    A maze of wires and tubing to connect data-collection instrumentation to the control centers is laid out on the pavement beside NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory. Alternative fuels experimenters inspect and service the multitude of sampling tubing and instrumentation control cables laid out on the pavement beside NASA’s DC-8 flying laboratory in between synthetic fuels emission and engine performance tests at the Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA Photo / Tom Tschida

    NASA and 11 other research groups are testing two non-petroleum-based jet fuels in the pursuit of alternative fuels that can power commercial jets and address rising oil costs. The tests, being run on one of the CFM-56 engines of a modified DC-8 jetliner at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., are measuring the performance and emissions of two synthetic fuels derived from coal and natural gas using the Fischer-Tropsch process.
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Latest News

Lancets Flights Probe Supersonic Shockwaves

NASA Dryden's NF-15B tail number 837's canards are titled down during a pre-flight control check prior to a Lancets project flight on Jan. 12, 2009.

NASA is concluding a series of flight tests to measure shock waves generated by an F-15 jet, in an effort to validate computer models that could be used in designing quieter supersonic aircraft.

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NASA Debuts Global Hawk Autonomous Aircraft for Earth S...

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center director Kevin L. Petersen addresses dignitaries and news media representatives during unveiling of NASA's first Global Hawk autonomously operated aircraft at the center Jan. 15.

NASA and Northrop Grumman Corporation have unveiled the first Global Hawk unmanned aircraft system to be used for environmental science research, heralding a new application for the world’s first full...

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Germany's DLR Chairman Visits NASA Dryden

Dr. Johann-Dietriech Wörner, DLR Chairman of the Executive Board, peers into the cockpit of an ER-2 aircraft while touring Dryden Flight Research Center facilities.

Dr. Johann-Dietrich Wörner, Chairman of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Executive Board, visited the NASA/DLR SOFIA astronomical observatory aircraft based at Dryden.

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News and Features

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavour mounted atop its modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft flies over California's Mojave Desert on the first leg of its ferry flight back to the Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 10, 2008.

    Endeavour Returns to Kennedy Space Center

    The final leg of Space Shuttle Endeavour's cross-country ferry flight was completed Dec. 12, 2008 when it landed at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Florida's east coast. The Endeavour and its modified Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft took off from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., at noon and arrived at Kennedy at mid-afternoon.

  • The Space Shuttle Endeavour touches down at Edwards AFB on Nov. 30, 2008 to conclude International Space Station assembly and supply mission STS-126.

    Shuttle Endeavour Lands Sunday at Edwards AFB

    After an almost 16-day mission to the International Space Station, the Space Shuttle Endeavour has landed at Edwards Air Force Base in the Southern California high desert. Endeavour descended under clear blue skies under bright afternoon sun, a loud sonic boom announcing its arrival over the desert airbase.

  • SOFIA's infrared telescope in the rear fuselage during nighttime testing.

    HIPO Photometer Installed on SOFIA Telescope

    The High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultation, or HIPO, instrument was installed on the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy telescope Nov. 17.

  • David D. McBride Deputy Director

    David McBride Appointed Deputy Director at NASA Dryden

    David D. McBride has been appointed deputy director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center on Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

  • Rake Airflow Gage Experiment flight

    Rake Airflow Gage Experiment Flies on NASA F-15B

    Dryden recently conducted a flight test of an airflow-measurement device mounted underneath its F-15B research aircraft.

  • x-15 in flight

    Final Flight of the X-15 Left a Legacy of Success

    If residents of Western Nevada had looked high up in the sky on the morning of Oct. 24, 1968, they might have seen the sun glinting off the fuselage of a silver, eight-engine NB-52A Stratofortress as it made a graceful turn over Smith Ranch Dry Lake.

  • SOFIA in flight.

    Scientists Selected for New Airborne Eye on the Universe

    Three astronomers to participate in first scientific observations to be conducted by the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA).

  • SOFIAs primary mirror assembly is lifted above wing level prior to its reinstallation in the telescope cavity of NASAs 747 airborne observatory Oct. 8, 2008.

    NASA Reinstalls Main Mirror in SOFIA Airborne Observatory

    Engineers and technicians from NASA, the German Space Agency and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut recently reinstalled the German-built primary mirror assembly into NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, airborne observatory.

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Dryden Spotlight

  • Cover of 50th anniversary X-Press

    50th Anniversary X-Press

    Dryden has made many significant contributions to NASA's mission since the agency's inception five decades ago. The 50th anniversary issue of the X-Press profiles 61 employees and 28 current and past projects.

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  • STS-119 logo

    STS-119
    Mission Update

    STS-119 is the 28th shuttle mission to the International Space Station. Discovery will carry the S6 truss segment as well as a new station crew member to the orbital outpost.

  • CEV in hangar.

    Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle

    Time-lapse video of the Orion Abort Flight Test Demonstrator undergoing weight, balance and center of gravity tests at NASA Dryden.

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  • SOFIA landing in Palmdale

    SOFIA

    NASA is developing the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - or SOFIA - as a world-class airborne observatory that will complement the Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel and James Webb space telescopes and major Earth-based telescopes.

  • NASA DC-8 approaching Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale

    Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility

    Our new aircraft operations facility in Palmdale offers the expanded space needed to manage Dryden's airborne science missions and research platforms.

  • X-48B Blended Wing Body on lakebed

    Research Update

    Current flight research projects and programs being flown at Dryden Flight Research Center.

  • X-15 in flight

    This Week in Dryden's History

    A collection of historical facts and events from Dryden's last 50 years.

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