A NASA analysis plane crashed in a fiery touchdown accident, however fortunately not one of the crew aboard the jet had been harmed.
One among NASA’s high-altitude WB-57 analysis jets skidded throughout the runway trailing fireplace and smoke behind it at Houston’s Ellington Area on Tuesday (Jan. 27) after touchdown with its wheels up as a result of a mechanical difficulty. Video posted to social media by Houston Air Watch exhibits the aircraft making a touchdown on its stomach. It is unclear what the mechanical difficulty might have been, but it surely seems to have affected the plane’s touchdown gear.
NASA WB-57 concerned in touchdown incident at Ellington Airport in #houston @KHOU pic.twitter.com/HOvr2YuHshJanuary 27, 2026
The company is now trying into the mechanical difficulty that brought about the furry touchdown.
“Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are protected presently,” NASA spokesperson Bethany Stevens posted on X on Tuesday. “As with all incident, a radical investigation might be carried out by NASA into the trigger. NASA will transparently replace the general public as we collect extra data.”
NASA owns three WB-57 plane, variants of the Martin B-57 Canberra that was first constructed as a bomber and high-altitude spy aircraft for america Air Drive in 1953. The B-57 noticed in depth use all through the Vietnam Battle doing reconnaissance runs. The plane was designed to fly at altitudes as excessive as 63,000 toes (19 kilometers) with a spread of two,500 miles (4,000 km).
In response to a NASA reality sheet, two of the company’s three WB-57s have been on maintain for inspections; the one which crashed right now is the one one to have flown lately. All three are primarily based out of Ellington Area, positioned close to the company’s Johnson Area Middle in Houston.
As a result of its platform was designed to be a bomber, the WB-57 is able to carrying heavy payloads — as much as 8,800 lbs. (4,000 kilograms), in keeping with NASA. That provides the jet versatility for conducting scientific experiments, akin to finding out photo voltaic eclipses.
In April 2024, a NASA WB-57 flew into the trail of the solar to check the corona, its outer environment. By doing so, the jet was in a position to expertise over six minutes of totality, 25% greater than anybody on the bottom received to see. The jet carried a high-resolution, high-speed digital camera that measured the solar’s corona in wavelengths starting from infrared to seen mild.
