New footage shows a 50-year-old NASA research jet making an emergency “belly” landing as it skidded down a Texas runway, spewing a torrent of flames and smoke.
On Tuesday (January 27), a WB-57 research plane executed a controlled crash on the runway at Ellington Field Airport near NASA’s Johnson Space Center outside Houston. The aircraft touched down at relatively low speed and skidded several hundred yards before coming to a stop. Local news site KHOU 11 captured video of the incident, which showed yellow flames and white smoke periodically erupting from the underside of the plane due to extreme friction between the aircraft and the tarmac.
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The emergency was caused by a “mechanical issue” that prevented the plane’s landing gear from deploying before landing, ABC News reported. NASA representatives said the plane suffered significant damage, but the crew, which included two unnamed pilots, was unharmed.
“A response to the accident is ongoing and all crew members are safe at this time,” NASA spokeswoman Bethany Stevens wrote on social platform
NASA’s WB-57 jet is part of the High Altitude Research Program based at Ellington Field and can fly for up to 6.5 hours at up to 63,000 feet (19,000 meters), nearly twice the altitude of commercial aircraft. The jet has two crew members: one to fly the plane and the other to conduct scientific experiments using specialized onboard equipment.
According to the WB-57 website, “Examples of missions include atmospheric and earth sciences, ground mapping, space dust collection, rocket launch support, and testbed operations for future aircraft or spaceborne systems.” In April 2024, the jet was also used to study a total solar eclipse over North America, allowing it to extend its duration by tracking the moon.
The WB-57 jet is a derivative of the RB-57F Canberra, a bomber-reconnaissance hybrid developed by the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s and flown in conflicts such as the Vietnam War. These aircraft were lightweight and capable of carrying heavy payloads, making them suitable for conversion into scientific vehicles.
According to Ars Technica, NASA currently has three WB-57 jets in its fleet, two of which have been in service since 1972 and one that was restored in 2013 after being discovered in an Air Force “graveyard” in Arizona. The three aircraft first flew together in 2015.
It is unclear whether the plane that crashed was the original or a reconstructed one. However, according to Live Science’s sister site Space.com, the other two aircraft are currently grounded for inspection, meaning all three aircraft will be out of service for the time being.
According to Ars Technica, the WB-57 aircraft has previously played a role in monitoring the exhaust plumes and re-entries of NASA rockets, including the Titan, Space Shuttle, Delta, Atlas and Athena spacecraft, as well as SpaceX’s wayward Starship rocket.
The jet that crashed was scheduled to do the same with the Artemis II moon rocket. The Artemis II moon rocket is ready and ready to launch humans into the lunar environment for the first time since 1972 (when NASA also started the WB-57 program). However, given the damage to the aircraft, it is unlikely that repairs will be completed before the mission’s earliest launch date, February 6.
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