NASAWB57Pilot

Personal Account: NASA Research Pilot at the Johnson Space Center flying the WB-57, T-38N, and Gulfstream III.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@Michael10711597 @NerdyKowboy Unfortunately we are unable.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

The NASA Johnson Space Center’s WB-57 regularly images astronauts returning from the ISS and soon to be from the Moon!

This mission was to perform a calibration on the imagery sensor prior to the Crew-5 capsule on its fiery return to Earth!

Godspeed Crew-5!!!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@1159 @jswartzphoto @NerdyKowboy @SpaceX 2,000 square feet of wing area with a span of 122 feet 5 inches.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@_Zam15_ @NerdyKowboy Crew Dragon capsule hunting, or at least preparing to.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@AeroSpaceKnight @NerdyKowboy Certainly not for wind shear. At altitude we typically do not experience a lot of wind let alone enough to generate shear. Now engine compressor stalls can be a different story…

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@TalkOTitusville I am not, but N927NA and another crew is!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@Gareth_OH It is a mix of autopilot and hand flying. We will use the autopilot to maintain altitude but manually control the angle of bank to achieve the desired turn rate to make the timing.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

Here is a 50X view of the flight profile to image the Crew-2 landing off the coast of Pensacola from the NASA WB-57, tail number NASA926.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@c50cub96 It was our pleasure! Thank you for having us!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@NASAPlanes Here is the view as we penetrated the low cloud deck on approach to McChord.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@mcongrove @TJ_Cooney Join NASA, come work for Aircraft Operations Division at Ellington Field and it is possible. Just ask @NerdyKowboy !

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@markgurman I just want Apple to call rOS by its proper name…pirateOS!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@TheRealMrMyers @NerdyKowboy Sorry to leave town so quickly but there is always the next mission to fly that is calling.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@Thunder_Owl @fcruzpichardo While it looks similar and performs a similar mission to the U-2, the heritage is completely unique. This was originally a British design for a medium-weight bomber from the late 1950s with a much smaller wingspan. Eventually the USAF upgraded to the long-wing version seen here.

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

The NASA #WB57 team flew to image the #SpaceX #CrewDragon capsule Endurance and her crew safely returning to Earth. Pretty spectacular view of their reentry. Welcome home #Crew3!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@fcruzpichardo @Thunder_Owl With a nearly 123 foot wingspan…yeah, not a lot of canyon runs!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@_Zam15_ I just put the plane in the right piece of sky…they do all of the really hard work!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@JasonRedd76 @spacewordnerd Well, we did takeoff on “Revenge of the Fifth” day so…

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@Thunder_Owl Just wish we had Z-95 acceleration!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@CrJ74221556 @spacewordnerd Not @NerdyKowboy this time, but he did make sure the nose-mounted sensor was good-to-go to capture the best imagery!

[NASAWB57Pilot @nasawb57]

@bwohlgemuth @9to5mac Nope, just a family vacation…this time!