The NASA Airborne Science Program aircraft list provides unique NASA aircraft and commercial aircraft that benefit the earth science community. These manned and unmanned aircraft carry the sensors that provide data to support and augment NASA spaceborne missions.
Reminder: All investigators with approved or pending proposals from the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) announcements that have a requirement for a NASA Airborne Science platform/instrument, must submit a Flight Request. The Flight Request is also the method to acquire an estimate if your proposal requires a cost estimate for Airborne Science support. However, for investigators proposing to participate on large, multi- aircraft experiments, such as the ROSES 2011: South East Asia Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling Regional Studies (SEAC4RS), a single Flight Request will be submitted for each mission by the project scientist or project manager. The Science Operations Flight Request System (SOFRS) can be reached directly at http://airbornescience.nasa.gov/sofrs.
For all "Commercial" aircraft, in addition to filing a Flight Request, investigators are responsible for contacting vendors to determine if the platform meets the requirements of the proposed scientific investigation. It is the responsibility of the investigator to ensure that before any preliminary test flights or actual data collection flights utilizing NASA personnel, instruments or funds occur, all vendors successfully complete a NASA airworthiness/flight safety review in accordance with NASA Aviation Safety Policy for Non-NASA Aircraft.
The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Wallops Flight Facility owns a C-23 Sherpa research aircraft available to support airborne science research. The C-23 is used to perform scientific research, provide logistics support on an as-needed basis to other airborne science missions, and can be used as a technology test bed for new airborne and satellite instrumentation. This aircraft is also available to support range surveillance and recovery operations as needed. The C-23 is a self-sufficient aircraft that can operate from short field civilian and military airports to remote areas of the world in support of scientific studies and other operations.
The C-23 is a two-engine turboprop aircraft designed to operate efficiently, under the most arduous conditions, in a wide range of mission configurations. The large square-section cargo hold, with excellent access at both ends (4 side fuselage doors and aft cargo ramp), and a 7000 pound payload, offers ready flexibility to perform a variety of missions. The aircraft also has 22 cabin windows as well as a nose cargo area available for installations.
Wallops Flight Facility is committed to providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective platforms for airborne research.