NASA pilots and flight engineers, together with colleagues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), have successfully completed the first science flight of the Global Hawk aircraft over the Pacific Ocean. The Global Hawk is a robotic plane that can fly autonomously to altitudes above 60,000 feet (18.3 kilometers) -- roughly twice as high as a commercial airliner -- and as far as 11,000 nautical miles (20,000 kilometers) -- half the circumference of Earth. GloPac researchers will directly measure and sample greenhouse gases, ozone-depleting substances, aerosols, and constituents of air quality in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
Read more about NASA's Global Hawk Pacific (GloPac) mission:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/global-hawk.html
Want more? Subscribe to NASA on iTunes!
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=283424434
Or get tweeted by NASA:
http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard
Its great uh! Revolutionarially sampling the atmosphere with a remotely operated mingler.
WeCanAllGetAllong 1 year ago
This is replacing the U2 spy plane program. congress is funding it up until 2012-2014
Arialace201 1 year ago
@ptacnik1988 not created for war duties... the wieght it can carry is to low. for war dutties its stricktly a machine that can go for a long distance of time on gas, that isn't even a maned air craft = not controlled by a human. it hold 1,000 lbs. not that much of a wieght load. the concept is amazing for cormercial flights cause of the machinics envolved in the air aircraft. but commercial it wont be because of the low weight payload
wratheor 1 year ago
i was disappointed because the global hawk was used for war duties but this make him look better i still prefer the ikahana though
ptacnik1988 1 year ago
cool, I like this nasa earth science thing
TheM4Custom 1 year ago
This is awesome cool beans. The future is glorious.
drealm 1 year ago
Man look at that view in the end.
br4nd0nh347 1 year ago
@Zubinen lol don't worry im not brain washed i was trying to make a joke ... and im Mexican
MEDINA559IFY 1 year ago
I wonder how many bombs it can deliver?
MsWanderer1 1 year ago
spy plane
nikbookworm 1 year ago