Preparing for Future Missions at the Armstrong Flight Research Center - Nasa daily picture for June 18 (2020)

Pilots Troy Asher and Wayne Ringelberg walk out of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center’s (AFRC) hangar in Palmdale, California, toward the flight line. In addition to aeronautics research, Flight Operations personnel support such missions as the Mars Perseverance Rover, slated to launch in July 2020.

Armstrong's Building 703 in Palmdale opened in 2007 at the former Rockwell International/North American Aircraft production facility in Palmdale. The Los Angeles World Airports Board of Airport Commissioners endorsed a 20-year lease agreement with NASA for use of a large hangar and surrounding acreage at the facility adjacent to U.S. Air Force Plant 42.

Specialized science platform aircraft, such as the DC-8 flying laboratory, high-altitude research aircraft ER-2s, C-20A, Gulfstream III and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, are based at the facility.  Building 703 contains about 422,000 square feet of floor space, including 210,000 square feet in the central hangar area and an equivalent amount of office space on four floors.

Learn more on NASA Armstrong: www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong

Image Credit: NASA/Lauren Hughes

Source: www.nasa.gov