NASA X-59’s Latest Testing Milestone: Simulating Flight from the Ground

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft successfully completed a critical series of tests in which the airplane was put through its paces for cruising high above the California desert – all without ever leaving the ground.

“The idea behind these tests is to command the airplane’s subsystems and flight computer to function as if it is flying,” said Yohan Lin, the X-59’s lead avionics engineer at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

The goal of ground-based simulation testing was to make sure the hardware and software that will allow the X-59 to fly safely are properly working together and able to handle any unexpected problems.

Any new aircraft is a combination of systems, and identifying the little adjustments required to optimize performance is an important step in a disciplined approach toward flight.

“We thought we might find a few things during the tests that would prompt us to go back and tweak them to work better, especially with some of the software, and that’s what we wound up experiencing. So, these tests were very helpful,” Lin said.

Completing the tests marks another milestone off the checklist of things to do before the X-59 makes its first flight this year, continuing NASA’s Quesst mission to help enable commercial supersonic air travel over land.

Simulating the Sky

During the testing, engineers from NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin turned on most of the X-59’s systems, leaving the engine off. For example, if the pilot moved the control stick a certain way, the flight computer moved the aircraft’s rudder or other control surfaces, just as it would in flight.

At the same time, the airplane was electronically connected to a ground computer that sends simulated signals – which the X-59 interpreted as real – such as changes in altitude, speed, temperature, or the health of various systems.

Sitting in the cockpit, the pilot “flew” the aircraft to see how the airplane would respond.

“These were simple maneuvers, nothing too crazy,” Lin said. “We would then inject failures into the airplane to see how it would respond. Would the system compensate for the failure? Was the pilot able to recover?”

Unlike in typical astronaut training simulations, where flight crews do not know what scenarios they might encounter, the X-59 pilots mostly knew what the aircraft would experience during every test and even helped plan them to better focus on the aircraft systems’ response.

Aluminum vs. Iron

In aircraft development, this work is known as “iron bird” testing, named for a simple metal frame on which representations of the aircraft’s subsystems are installed, connected, and checked out.

Building such a testbed is a common practice for development programs in which many aircraft will be manufactured. But since the X-59 is a one-of-a-kind airplane, officials decided it was better and less expensive to use the aircraft itself.

As a result, engineers dubbed this series of exercises “aluminum bird” testing, since that’s the metal the X-59 is mostly made of.

So, instead of testing an “iron bird” with copies of an aircraft’s systems on a non-descript frame, the “aluminum bird” used the actual aircraft and its systems, which in turn meant the test results gave everyone higher confidence in the design,

“It’s a perfect example of the old tried and true adage in aviation that says ‘Test what you fly. Fly what you test,’” Lin said.

Still Ahead for the X-59

With aluminum bird testing in the rearview mirror, the next milestone on the X-59’s path to first flight is take the airplane out on the taxiways at the airport adjacent to Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California, where the X-59 was built. First flight would follow those taxi tests.

Already in the X-59’s logbook since the fully assembled and painted airplane made its public debut in January 2024:

• A Flight Readiness Review in which a board of independent experts from across NASA completed a study of the X-59 project team’s approach to safety for the public and staff during ground and flight testing.

• A trio of important structural tests and critical inspections that included “shaking” the airplane to make sure there were no unexpected problems from the vibrations.

• Firing up the GE Aerospace jet engine for the first time after installation into the X-59, including a series of tests of the engine running with full afterburner.

• Checking the wiring that ties together the X-59’s flight computer, electronic systems, and other hardware to be sure there were no concerns about electromagnetic interference.

• Testing the aircraft’s ability to maintain a certain speed while flying, essentially a check of the X-59’s version of cruise control.

The X-59 Tests in 59

About the Author

Jim Banke

Managing Editor/Senior Writer

Jim Banke is a veteran aviation and aerospace communicator with more than 40 years of experience as a writer, producer, consultant, and project manager based at Cape Canaveral, Florida. He is part of NASA Aeronautics’ Strategic Communications Team and is Managing Editor for the Aeronautics topic on the NASA website.

Explore More

4 min read

Top Prize Awarded in Lunar Autonomy Challenge to Virtually Map Moon’s Surface

Article


18 hours ago

3 min read

NASA Selects Student Teams for Drone Hurricane Response and Cybersecurity Research

Article


21 hours ago

1 min read

NASA Glenn Showcases Stirling Engine Technology at Piston Powered Auto-Rama

Article


2 days ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Missions

Artemis

Aeronautics STEM

Explore NASA’s History

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Jim Banke

Top Prize Awarded in Lunar Autonomy Challenge to Virtually Map Moon’s Surface

NASA named Stanford University of California winner of the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, a six-month competition for U.S. college and university student teams to virtually map and explore using a digital twin of NASA’s In-Situ Resource Utilization Pilot Excavator (IPEx). 

The winning team successfully demonstrated the design and functionality of their autonomous agent, or software that performs specified actions without human intervention. Their agent autonomously navigated the IPEx digital twin in the virtual lunar environment, while accurately mapping the surface, correctly identifying obstacles, and effectively managing available power.

The Lunar Autonomy Challenge has been a truly unique experience. The challenge provided the opportunity to develop and test methods in a highly realistic simulation environment.»

Adam dai

Lunar Autonomy Challenge team lead, Stanford University

Dai added, “It pushed us to find solutions robust to the harsh conditions of the lunar surface. I learned so much through the challenge, both about new ideas and methods, as well as through deepening my understanding of core methods across the autonomy stack (perception, localization, mapping, planning). I also very much enjoyed working together with my team to brainstorm different approaches and strategies and solve tangible problems observed in the simulation.” 

The challenge offered 31 teams a valuable opportunity to gain experience in software development, autonomy, and machine learning using cutting-edge NASA lunar technology. Participants also applied essential skills common to nearly every engineering discipline, including technical writing, collaborative teamwork, and project management.

The Lunar Autonomy Challenge supports NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative (LSII), which is part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate. The LSII aims to accelerate technology development and pursue results that will provide essential infrastructure for lunar exploration by collaborating with industry, academia, and other government agencies.

The work displayed by all of these teams has been impressive, and the solutions they have developed are beneficial to advancing lunar and Mars surface technologies as we prepare for increasingly complex missions farther from home.” 

Niki Werkheiser

Director of Technology Maturation and LSII lead, NASA Headquarters

“To succeed, we need input from everyone — every idea counts to propel our goals forward. It is very rewarding to see these students and software developers contributing their skills to future lunar and Mars missions,” Werkheiser added.  

Through the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, NASA collaborated with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Caterpillar Inc., and Embodied AI. Each team contributed unique expertise and tools necessary to make the challenge a success.

The Applied Physics Laboratory managed the challenge for NASA. As a systems integrator for LSII, they provided expertise to streamline rigor and engineering discipline across efforts, ensuring the development of successful, efficient, and cost-effective missions — backed by the world’s largest cohort of lunar scientists. 

Caterpillar Inc. is known for its construction and excavation equipment and operates a large fleet of autonomous haul trucks. They also have worked with NASA for more than 20 years on a variety of technologies, including autonomy, 3D printing, robotics, and simulators as they continue to collaborate with NASA on technologies that support NASA’s mission objectives and provide value to the mining and construction industries. 

Embodied AI collaborated with Caterpillar to integrate the simulation into the open-source  driving environment used for the challenge. For the Lunar Autonomy Challenge, the normally available digital assets of the CARLA simulation platform, such as urban layouts, buildings, and vehicles, were replaced by an IPEx “Digital Twin” and lunar environmental models.

“This collaboration is a great example of how the government, large companies, small businesses, and research institutions can thoughtfully leverage each other’s different, but complementary, strengths,” Werkheiser added. “By substantially modernizing existing tools, we can turn today’s novel technologies into tomorrow’s institutional capabilities for more efficient and effective space exploration, while also stimulating innovation and economic growth on Earth.”

FINALIST TEAMS

First Place
NAV Lab team
Stanford University, Stanford, California

Second Place
MAPLE (MIT Autonomous Pathfinding for Lunar Exploration) team
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Third Place
Moonlight team
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

OTHER COMPETING TEAMS

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Space Technology Mission Directorate

NASA’s Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative

Game Changing Development Projects

Game Changing Development projects aim to advance space technologies, focusing on advancing capabilities for going to and living in space.

ISRU Pilot Excavator

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Stefanie Payne

NASA Welcomes Norway as 55th Nation to Sign Artemis Accords

Following an international signing ceremony Thursday, NASA congratulated Norway on becoming the latest country to join the Artemis Accords, committing to the peaceful, transparent, and responsible exploration of space.

“We’re grateful for the strong and meaningful collaboration we’ve already had with the Norwegian Space Agency,” said acting NASA Administrator Janet Petro. “Now, by signing the Artemis Accords, Norway is not only supporting the future of exploration, but also helping us define it with all our partners for the Moon, Mars, and beyond.”

Norway’s Minster of Trade and Industry Cecilie Myrseth signed the Artemis Accords on behalf of the country during an event at the Norwegian Space Agency (NOSA) in Oslo. Christian Hauglie-Hanssen, director general of NOSA, and Robert Needham, U.S. Embassy Chargé d’Affaires for Norway, participated in the event. Petro contributed remarks in a pre-recorded video message.

“We are pleased to be a part of the Artemis Accords,” said Myrseth. “This is an important step for enabling Norway to contribute to broader international cooperation to ensure the peaceful exploration and use of outer space.”

In 2020, the United States, led by NASA and the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords, the first set of practical guidelines for nations to increase safety of operations and reduce risk and uncertainty in their civil exploration activities.

The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements including the Registration Convention and the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices for responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data. 

Learn more about the Artemis Accords at:

https://www.nasa.gov/artemis-accords

-end-

Amber Jacobson / Elizabeth Shaw
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
amber.c.jacobson@nasa.gov / elizabeth.a.shaw@nasa.gov

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
Jessica Taveau

NASA Satellite Images Could Provide Early Volcano Warnings 

Scientists know that changing tree leaves can indicate when a nearby volcano is becoming more active and might erupt. In a new collaboration between NASA and the Smithsonian Institution, scientists now believe they can detect these changes from space.

As volcanic magma ascends through the Earth’s crust, it releases carbon dioxide and other gases which rise to the surface. Trees that take up the carbon dioxide become greener and more lush. These changes are visible in images from NASA satellites such as Landsat 8, along with airborne instruments flown as part of the Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean (AVUELO).

Ten percent of the world’s population lives in areas susceptible to volcanic hazards. People who live or work within a few miles of an eruption face dangers that include ejected rock, dust, and surges of hot, toxic gases. Further away, people and property are susceptible to mudslides, ashfalls, and tsunamis that can follow volcanic blasts. There’s no way to prevent volcanic eruptions, which makes the early signs of volcanic activity crucial for public safety. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, NASA’s Landsat mission partner, the United States is one of the world’s most volcanically active countries.

When magma rises underground before an eruption, it releases gases, including carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. The sulfur compounds are readily detectable from orbit. But the volcanic carbon dioxide emissions that precede sulfur dioxide emissions – and provide one of the earliest indications that a volcano is no longer dormant – are difficult to distinguish from space. 

The remote detection of carbon dioxide greening of vegetation potentially gives scientists another tool — along with seismic waves and changes in ground height—to get a clear idea of what’s going on underneath the volcano. “Volcano early warning systems exist,” said volcanologist Florian Schwandner, chief of the Earth Science Division at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, who had teamed up with Fisher and Bogue a decade ago. “The aim here is to make them better and make them earlier.”

“Volcanoes emit a lot of carbon dioxide,” said volcanologist Robert Bogue of McGill University in Montreal, but there’s so much existing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that it’s often hard to measure the volcanic carbon dioxide specifically. While major eruptions can expel enough carbon dioxide to be measurable from space with sensors like NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2, detecting these much fainter advanced warning signals has remained elusive.  “A volcano emitting the modest amounts of carbon dioxide that might presage an eruption isn’t going to show up in satellite imagery,” he added.

Because of this, scientists must trek to volcanoes to measure carbon dioxide directly. However, many of the roughly 1,350 potentially active volcanoes worldwide are in remote locations or challenging mountainous terrain. That makes monitoring carbon dioxide at these sites labor-intensive, expensive, and sometimes dangerous. 

Volcanologists like Bogue have joined forces with botanists and climate scientists to look at trees to monitor volcanic activity. “The whole idea is to find something that we could measure instead of carbon dioxide directly,” Bogue said, “to give us a proxy to detect changes in volcano emissions.”

“There are plenty of satellites we can use to do this kind of analysis,” said volcanologist Nicole Guinn of the University of Houston. She has compared images collected with Landsat 8, NASA’s Terra satellite, ESA’s (European Space Agency) Sentinel-2, and other Earth-observing satellites to monitor trees around the Mount Etna volcano on the coast of Sicily. Guinn’s study is the first to show a strong correlation between tree leaf color and magma-generated carbon dioxide.

Confirming accuracy on the ground that validates the satellite imagery is a challenge that climate scientist Josh Fisher of Chapman University is tackling with surveys of trees around volcanoes. During the March 2025 Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean mission with NASA and the Smithsonian Institution scientists deployed a spectrometer on a research plane to analyze the colors of plant life in Panama and Costa Rica.

Fisher directed a group of investigators who collected leaf samples from trees near the active Rincon de la Vieja volcano in Costa Rica while also measuring carbon dioxide levels. “Our research is a two-way interdisciplinary intersection between ecology and volcanology,” Fisher said. “We’re interested not only in tree responses to volcanic carbon dioxide as an early warning of eruption, but also in how much the trees are able to take up, as a window into the future of the Earth when all of Earth’s trees are exposed to high levels of carbon dioxide.”

Relying on trees as proxies for volcanic carbon dioxide has its limitations. Many volcanoes feature climates that don’t support enough trees for satellites to image. In some forested environments, trees that respond differently to changing carbon dioxide levels. And fires, changing weather conditions, and plant diseases can complicate the interpretation of satellite data on volcanic gases.

Still, Schwandner has witnessed the potential benefits of volcanic carbon dioxide observations first-hand. He led a team that upgraded the monitoring network at Mayon volcano in the Philippines to include carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide sensors. In December 2017, government researchers in the Philippines used this system to detect signs of an impending eruption and advocated for mass evacuations of the area around the volcano. Over 56,000 people were safely evacuated before a massive eruption began on January 23, 2018. As a result of the early warnings, there were no casualties.

Using satellites to monitor trees around volcanoes would give scientists earlier insights into more volcanoes and offer earlier warnings of future eruptions. “There’s not one signal from volcanoes that’s a silver bullet,” Schwandner said. “And tracking the effects of volcanic carbon dioxide on trees will not be a silver bullet. But it will be something that could change the game.”

By James Riordon
NASA’s Earth Science News Team

Media contact: Elizabeth Vlock
NASA Headquarters

About the Author

James R. Riordon

Explore More

4 min read

Two Small NASA Satellites Will Measure Soil Moisture, Volcanic Gases

Two NASA pathfinding missions were recently deployed into low-Earth orbit, where they are demonstrating novel…

Article


1 year ago

4 min read

NASA Announces New System to Aid Disaster Response

In early May, widespread flooding and landslides occurred in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande…

Article


11 months ago

4 min read

Into The Field With NASA: Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes

To better understand Mars, NASA’s Goddard Instrument Field Team hiked deep into the backcountry of…

Article


9 months ago

Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

Missions

Humans in Space

Climate Change

Solar System

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…
James R. Riordon

Let’s Bake a Cosmic Cake!

To celebrate what would have been the 100th birthday of Dr. Nancy Grace Roman — NASA’s first chief astronomer and the namesake for the agency’s nearly complete Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope — we’re baking a birthday cake! This isn’t your ordinary birthday treat — this cosmic cake represents the contents of our universe and everything the Roman telescope will uncover.

The outside of our cosmic cake depicts the sky as we see it from Earth—inky black and dotted with sparkling stars. The inside represents the universe as Roman will see it. This three-layer cake charts the mysterious contents of our universe — mostly dark energy, then dark matter, and finally just five percent normal matter. As you cut into our universe cake, out spills a candy explosion symbolizing the wealth of cosmic objects Roman will see.

Roman Cosmic Cake Instructions

Ingredients:

• Two boxes of vanilla cake mix and required ingredients
• Food coloring in three colors
• Black frosting
• Edible glitter

• Yellow sprinkles 
• Nonpareil sprinkle mix 
• Chocolate nonpareil candies 
• Popping candy 
• Miniature creme sandwich cookies 
• Granulated sugar 
• Sour candies 
• Dark chocolate chips 
• Jawbreakers 

To make our cosmic cake, we first need to account for the universe’s building blocks — normal matter, dark matter, and dark energy. Comprising about five percent of the universe, normal matter is the stuff we see around us every day, from apples to stars in the sky. Outnumbering normal matter by five times, dark matter is an invisible mass that makes up about 25 percent of the universe. Finally, dark energy — a mysterious something accelerating our universe’s expansion — makes up about 68 percent of the cosmos.

No one knows what dark matter and dark energy truly are, but we know they exist due to their effects on the universe. Roman will provide clues to these puzzles by 3D mapping matter alongside the expansion of the universe through time. 

To depict the universe’s building blocks in our cosmic cake, mix the cake batter according to your chosen recipe. Pour one-fourth of the batter into one bowl for the dark matter layer, a little less than three-fourths into another bowl for dark energy, and the remainder into a separate bowl for normal matter. This will give you the quantities of batter for dark energy and dark matter, respectively. Use the remainder to represent normal matter. Color each bowl of batter differently using food coloring, then pour them into three separate cake pans and bake. The different sized layers will have different baking times, so watch them carefully to ensure proper cooking.

While our cake bakes, we’ll create the cosmic candy mix — the core of our cake that represents the universe’s objects that Roman will uncover.

First, pour yellow sprinkles into a bowl to symbolize the billions of stars Roman will see, including once-hidden stars on the far side of the Milky Way thanks to its ability to see starlight through gas and dust. 

Roman’s data will also allow scientists to map gas and dust for the most complete picture yet of the Milky Way’s structure and how it births new stars. Add some granulated sugar to the candy mix as gas and dust.

Next, add nonpareil sprinkles and chocolate nonpareil candies to symbolize galaxies and galaxy clusters. Roman will capture hundreds of millions of galaxies, precisely measuring their positions, shapes, sizes, and distances. By studying the properties of so many galaxies, scientists will be able to chart dark matter and dark energy’s effects more accurately than ever before.

Now, add popping candies as explosive star deaths. Roman will witness tens of thousands of a special kind called type Ia supernovae. By studying how fast type Ia supernovae recede from us at different distances, scientists will trace cosmic expansion to better understand whether and how dark energy has changed throughout time.

Supernovae aren’t the only stellar remnants that Roman will see. To represent neutron stars and black holes, add in jawbreakers and dark chocolate chips. Neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that collapsed to the size of a city, making them the densest things we can directly observe. 

The densest things we can’t directly observe are black holes. Most black holes are formed when massive stars collapse even further to a theoretical singular point of infinite density. Sometimes, black holes form when neutron stars merge—an epic event that Roman will witness. 

Roman is also equipped to spot star-sized black holes in the Milky Way and supermassive black holes in other galaxies. Some supermassive black holes lie at the center of active galaxies—the hearts of which emit excessive energy compared to the rest of the galaxy. For these active cores, also spotted by Roman, add sour candies to the mix.

Finally, add both whole and crushed miniature creme sandwich cookies to represent distant planets and planets-to-be. Peering into the center of our galaxy, Roman will scan for warped space-time indicating the presence of other worlds. The same set of observations could also reveal more than 100,000 more planets passing in front of other stars. Additionally, the Coronagraph Instrument will directly image both worlds and dusty disks around stars that can eventually form planets.

After baking, remove the cake layers from the oven to cool. Cut a hole in the center of the thicker dark matter and dark energy layers. Then, stack these two layers using frosting to secure them. Pour the cosmic candy mix into the cake’s core. Then, place the thin normal matter layer on top, securing it with frosting. Frost the whole cake in black and dust it with edible glitter.

Congratulations — your Roman Cosmic Cake is complete! As you look at the cake’s exterior, think of the night sky. As you slice the cake, imagine Roman’s deeper inspection to unveil billions of cosmic objects and clues about our universe’s mysterious building blocks.

By Laine Havens
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Powered by WPeMatico

Get The Details…