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NASA’s X-59 Reaches Speed, Altitude for Future Quiet Supersonic Flights

12 June 2026 at 20:35

The X-59 in flight on June 12, 2026 against a blue sky.

NASA’s X-59 quiet supersonic research aircraft reached its target speed and altitude for future community overflights for the first time during a flight on Friday, June 12, 2026. The milestone marked the first time the aircraft flew at Mach 1.4 and 55,000 feet — conditions it will fly when gathering community response data to its quiet sonic thump.

NASA/Lori Losey

NASA’s X-59 experimental aircraft reached a major milestone Friday, June 12, flying Mach 1.4 (about 924 mph) and an altitude of 55,000 feet, the conditions required for the aircraft to make future flights critical to its mission.

The X-59 still has months of performance testing ahead, but after those are complete, NASA’s Quesst mission will fly the aircraft over several U.S. communities to collect data on public perception of the quiet sonic thump it will make at supersonic speeds. Those community overflights will include flights at Mach 1.4 and 55,000 feet.

The milestone comes just days after the X-59’s first supersonic flight. That flight showed the aircraft performed as expected at Mach 1.1, but Friday’s mission conditions flight was an even more critical step for NASA.

The aircraft’s team has steadily expanded the aircraft’s flight envelope by evaluating its performance at a variety of speeds and altitudes, and having its pilots take on a battery of maneuvers.

Photo of the XVS screen on the X-59 showing Mach 1.4 at 55,030 was achieved.

NASA’s X‑59 eXternal Vision System (XVS) shows Mach 1.4 at 55,030 feet on Friday, June 12, 2026 during the aircraft’s first mission conditions flight, the approximate conditions it will fly when gathering community response data to its quiet “sonic thump.” The milestone marks the first time the aircraft flew at its designed speed and altitude.

NASA/Lori Losey

The X-59 was designed to fly supersonic without causing a loud sonic boom. However, for these early supersonic flights it has been accompanied by a NASA F-15 research aircraft, a traditional supersonic jet that causes booms obscuring any noise the X-59 makes. During upcoming flights, a shock-sensing probe mounted to the F-15 will gather measurements of the X-59’s shock wave signature, an early measure of its supersonic performance.

After the team conducts more tests at a variety of altitudes and conditions to complete envelope expansion, the X-59 will enter the acoustic validation phase of Quesst. During this phase, researchers will thoroughly measure the aircraft’s supersonic acoustic signature — the quiet thump it’s designed to make — to confirm it is performing as intended.

Each flight brings NASA one step closer to flying the X-59 over communities and gathering feedback that could help shape the future of commercial supersonic flight over land.

More X-59 to Explore

Hazard Detection Lidar System Goes to the Moon

NASA Science

12 June 2026 at 18:41

Hazard Detection Lidar System Goes to the Moon

A flight testing success story

Enabling landers to autonomously identify the safest sites to touch down

Moon craters and their surrounding areas are high-value destinations for lunar missions since they may contain important resources and valuable science targets. However, these sites are also home to dangers such as steep slopes that are difficult to see in the challenging lighting conditions. As a result, selecting landing sites on lunar surfaces is a critical component for NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) missions. A new technology tested through NASA’s Flight Opportunities program is set to go to the Moon and help provide a safe and precise landing.

Astrobotic Technology’s Hazard Detection (HD) Lidar system scans and analyzes the terrain in real-time, enabling landers to autonomously map and select the safest landing sites. Lidar stands for light detection and ranging. The Pittsburgh-headquartered company will use its HD Lidar system when its Griffin lunar lander delivers science and technology payloads to the Moon during its CLPS delivery to the lunar south pole.

With Flight Opportunities support, Astrobotic first tested an engineering model of its advanced HD Lidar sensor in November 2024, confirming its ability to select a safe landing site by detecting and avoiding slopes, rough areas, and potential hazards. This flight test provided the Astrobotic team valuable data on the system’s performance, which was later leveraged by a second flight test in March 2026 with an integrated hazard detection and guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system to further validate the system ahead of its first lunar mission scheduled for later this year. These flight tests helped the company advance the technology for use on its CLPS mission.

Preparing for Griffin Mission One | Flight testing lidar hazard detection video | Additional information

Preparing for Griffin Mission One

The Astrobotic Griffin Mission One will launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to deliver NASA payloads to the lunar south pole.

Astrobotic’s HD Lidar system is designed to detect hazards as small as 5.9 inches (15 cm) and slopes greater than 10° to identify potential hazards, such as craters or large rocks. During the lander’s final descent phase, the spacecraft performs a stationary hover at an altitude of 100 meters — about the height of a 30-story building — while pointing its lidar toward the intended landing site. During the hover, the lidar scans the terrain, applies motion correction to account for changes in the spacecraft’s position and attitude, and processes the results into a hazard map used to identify the safest available landing location. The spacecraft then maneuvers to the selected landing site and proceeds with touchdown.

Astrobotic’s HD Lidar system works in tandem with its terrain relative navigation (TRN) sensor system, which takes live photos of the surface and compares them to an onboard map derived from orbital images to determine the spacecraft’s location above the lunar surface. In preparation for the CLPS mission, Astrobotic fully integrated its HD Lidar and TRN camera into its Griffin lander and demonstrated a successful soft landing simulation using Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission One production flatsat — a platform built with engineering models of the actual flight avionics.

Learn more about the Griffin Mission One CLPS delivery about Preparing for Griffin Mission One

Astrobotic’s Griffin lunar lander inside the company’s integration facility. The lander uses Hazard Detection Lidar technology tested with support of NASA’s Flight Opportunities program.

Astrobotic

Advancing Hazard Detection Lidar Through Flight Testing

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program supported testing of Astrobotic’s HD Lidar as part of its mission to demonstrate promising technologies for space exploration, scientific discovery, and the expansion of space commerce. During the flight test on Nov. 11, 2024, an engineering model of the HD Lidar sensor successfully collected data over Astrobotic’s Lunar Surface Proving Ground while mounted on the company’s Xodiac reusable vertical takeoff vertical landing rocket. During the flight, the HD Lidar system processed the 3D lidar point cloud data into a terrain hazard map and helped verify lidar communications, settings, and controls under relevant conditions.

This flight test enabled Astrobotic to make a significant advancement in demonstrating space exploration technology capabilities, and the company applied lessons from this test directly to its lunar lander missions.

Learn more about the HD Lidar 2024 flight test