The aging plane needed to be replaced as it was getting harder to sustain. The plane was used by NASA for 37 years.
NASA’s venerable DC-8 Flying Laboratory takes a final flyby at Moffett Field, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, where personnel from Ames Research Center including Mike Gaunce and Chris Scofield wave goodbye. For many NASA scientists, flying aboard a decked-out Douglas DC-8 plane provided them some unique glimpses of Earth: the Moai on Easter Island, Central Park in New York and Mount Vesuvius in Italy.
“It’s just cool to see all these different measurements for atmospheric composition, and it’s a great community to be a part of, and you get to travel the world doing science,” Hannun said. The flight was part of Operation IceBridge, which aimed to continue collecting data on polar ice while NASA was switching satellites. Zavaleta recalled seeing mountain ranges and glaciers as far as the eye could see.
The moment — coming in low over America’s biggest city — was a culmination, he said, of all the coordination required to do some “low-level flying in some of the busiest places you can possibly fly while doing it safely.” Those changes made it possible for the aircraft to gather data on air quality and climate investigations. Chris Scofield, a former research scientist on the DC-8, wiped away tears as she watched the plane fly off for the last time and recalled one of the most significant uses of data gathered on the aircraft.
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