David D. McBride
Director, NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center
Five years ago, President Obama offered a vision to the American people for NASA and the space program’s plans for improving life here on Earth while also enabling our journey to Mars and beyond. The Armstrong Flight Research Center and the people of Antelope Valley are a big part of it.
From researching and validating new technologies that make general and commercial aviation aircraft safer and more environmentally friendly, or working with our neighbors at the Mojave Air and Spaceport to create sustainable American commercial access to space, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center is with you when you fly.
Aviation is a critically important sector in a time when our nation’s economy needs a robust commercial aviation industrial base. Aviation generates more $1.5 trillion in U.S. economic activity each year, as well as supports more than 11.5 million direct and indirect jobs and transports 17.7 billion tons of freight each year.
To sustain and grow America’s global leadership in aeronautics and commercial aircraft production, NASA is committed to transforming aviation by dramatically reducing its environmental impact, maintaining and improving safety in more crowded skies, enabling safe access for UAS unmanned aircraft systems into the National Airspace System, and paving the way to revolutionary aircraft shapes and propulsion.
NASA Armstrong is the agency’s center of excellence for atmospheric flight research, working with American and international partners to test and corroborate new technologies and alternative fuels that will make aircraft operations more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient.
NASA Armstrong employees bring California’s motto to life – our researchers and engineers have “Eureka” moments regularly, which is one reason NASA is consistently voted the best place to work in the federal government. At NASA, we understand that only through innovation and moving our boundaries forward will we be able to keep our momentum and the American aerospace economic advantage alive.
In addition to our sustained investment in aeronautics research and development, NASA Armstrong manages a space technology program that partners technology payloads from researchers, scientists and innovators with test flights to the edge of space on commercial, reusable platforms – rockets made by companies like Masten, Virgin Galactic and Up Aerospace.
The NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy airborne telescope is now conducting regular science operations out of California investigating NASA’s strategic goals in astrophysics, which are to discover the origin, structure, evolution and destiny of the Universe and search for Earth-like planets.
The global Earth system is changing. NASA is conducting Earth Science research from California studying the entire planet to better understand its health. We are not just working to understand what is happening, but why it is happening. Our plant is changing and we are on it.
NASA today finds solutions to challenges facing the aerospace and science communities that help the nation reach for new heights and reveal the unknown for the benefit of humankind. Thanks to the great work of the NASA Armstrong team, America’s aerospace program is more than just alive in California, it is thriving.
As the President stated in his speech five years ago this month, “for pennies on the dollar, the space program has fueled jobs and entire industries. For pennies on the dollar, the space program has improved our lives, advanced our society, strengthened our economy, and inspired generations of Americans.” This return on investment continues here on Earth, right now. Technology drives exploration and California is the innovation engine our new high-tech economy. Together, NASA and California will continue to lead the nation in Eureka moments.