Aircraft List

The NASA Airborne Science Program provides a unique set of NASA supported aircraft that benefit the earth science community. These manned and unmanned aircraft carry the sensors that provide data to support and augment NASA spaceborne missions.

Reminder: All investigators with approved or pending proposals from the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) announcements that have a requirement for a NASA Airborne Science platform/instrument, must submit a Flight Request. The Flight Request is also the method to acquire an estimate if your proposal requires a cost estimate for Airborne Science support. However, for investigators proposing to participate on large, multi-aircraft experiments, a single Flight Request will be submitted for each mission by the Project Manager or Project Scientist. The Science Operations Flight Request System (SOFRS) can be reached directly at https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/sofrs.

Non-NASA Aircraft
NASA instrumentation may fly on non-NASA Federal aircraft as well as academic and commercial platforms for which agreements for access by SMD investigators are in place, in process, or have recently been approved by NASA Aviation Management as airworthy and safe to operate. For more information, please review the current ASP Call Letter for further requirements and guidance. Please note that in addition to filing the required Flight Request, investigators are responsible for contacting vendors to determine if the platform meets the requirements of the proposed scientific investigation. It is also the responsibility of the investigator to ensure that before any preliminary test flights or actual data collection flights utilizing NASA personnel, instruments or funds occur, all vendors successfully complete a NASA airworthiness/flight safety review in accordance with NASA Aviation Safety Policy for Non-NASA Aircraft.

Gulfstream C-20A (GIII) - AFRC

Current Status:
Engine swap (ends 04/03/24)

The NASA C-20A (Gulfstream III) is a business jet that has been structurally modified and instrumented by NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center to serve as a multi-role cooperative research platform for the earth science community and a variety of flight research customers. This particular aircraft, which carries the military designation of C-20A, was obtained from the U.S. Air Force in 2003.

NASA802 can support a single science flight up to ~6.0 flight hours. In addition, NASA802 can also support two science flights in one day up to 9.0 total flight hours with one ground crew.

Owner/Operator: 
NASA Armstrong (Dryden) Flight Research Center
Type: 
Conventional Aircraft
Duration: 
6.0 hours (payload and weather dependent)
Useful Payload: 
2,500 lbs
Gross Take-off Weight: 
69,700 lbs
Onboard Operators: 
10 Aircrew
Max Altitude: 
45,000
Air Speed: 
460 knots
Range: 
3,400 Nmi
NASA SMD User Fee per Hour: 
$3000
Point(s) of Contact: 

Ken Norlin

Work: (661) 276-2046
Mobile: (661) 816-6458
Individual Aircraft Details: 

N802NA (NASA802) based at AFRC/Edwards
  Year built: 1983
  Year entered ASP service: 2008