NASA will fly an F-18 research aircraft, pictured here taxiing to the runway from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., to produce sonic booms over Kennedy Space Center. The sonic booms will be recorded by equipment both in the air and on the ground, providing NASA researchers with data to help them better understand the impact of atmospheric turbulence on sonic booms. NASA’s F-18 aircraft were obtained from the U.S. Navy, and are flown for research support and pilot proficiency. Credits: NASA Photo / Ken Ulbrich

Members of the media are invited to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the agency produces sonic booms to support research being conducted that may one day enable supersonic flight over land.

Accredited media will have access to Kennedy on Aug. 24 for the Sonic Booms in Atmospheric Turbulence, or SonicBAT, media day. Members of the news media will have the opportunity to see the NASA F-18 jet up close, hear sonic booms produced by an F-18, speak with members of the project and NASA research pilots and view an F-18 flyover. The media day will begin at 10 a.m. and end at noon.

All media accreditation requests can be submitted online. Obtaining access to the center and questions about accreditation may be sent to ksc-media-accreditat@mail.nasa.gov. For other questions or additional information, contact Kennedy’s newsroom at 321-867-2468.

The deadline for accreditation is Aug. 21. International accreditation is not available for this event. The date of the event may be subject to change.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is partnering with the agency's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Langley Research Center in Virginia, and Space Florida for the flight series. The research is under NASA’s Commercial Supersonic Technology project. NASA’s supersonic research, spanning decades, is leading toward quieting the sonic boom to more of a quiet “thump.”

SonicBAT flights will begin Aug. 21 and extend over approximately two weeks. NASA F-18 aircraft will take off from the Shuttle Landing Facility and fly at supersonic speeds while agency researchers on the ground measure the effects of low-altitude turbulence on sonic booms.

The project aims to collect data in three different conditions, including low turbulence, medium turbulence and significant turbulence, to obtain a stronger understanding of how the variations impact sonic booms.

SonicBAT is a continuation of the 2016 successful supersonic research flights flown at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, located in the dry atmosphere at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The project now looks to gather similar data in the humid atmosphere at Kennedy.

For more information about the mission, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/features/sonic_boom_tests_set_for_ksc.html

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Press Contacts

Tracy Young/Amber Philman
Kennedy Space Center, Florida
321-867-2468
tracy.g.young@nasa.gov/amber.n.philman@nasa.gov

Matt Kamlet
Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
661-276-2330
matthew.r.kamlet@nasa.gov

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