X-59 gets ready for 2nd test flight | Space photo of the day for March 18, 2026

NASA's X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft is hours away from its second flight — and while the Space.com photo caption calls it a pretty sunset image, the real story is the methodical engineering campaign that follows a first flight, not the photo itself.

The X-59 made its historic first flight on October 28, 2025, with NASA test pilot Nils Larson at the controls at Edwards Air Force Base. What came next was not a quick turnaround. NASA and Lockheed Martin Skunk Works spent months disassembling the aircraft for inspection: the engine was removed, along with the lower empennage — a tail section — the pilot's seat, and more than 70 body panels. All have since been reinstalled and cleared.

"These guys know what they're doing," said incoming pilot Jim "Clue" Less, who will fly the second flight. "Nils trusted them for the first flight. I trust them for the second flight and every flight after that."

On March 12, 2026, the team completed one of the final ground tests: an engine run that fired up the X-59's modified F-18 Super Hornet F414-GE-100 engine at Armstrong Flight Research Center.

"It's always exciting to see the X-59 come to life on the ground," said Ray Castner, NASA's X-59 lead propulsion engineer. "For our team, it's a moment to pause and appreciate how far this aircraft has come — and how close we are to pushing into the next phase of flight."

The second flight — currently targeted for the week of March 16, with a media teleconference scheduled for 5:30 PM EDT on March 19 — will last roughly an hour. Less will take off and land at Edwards Air Force Base, climbing to 12,000 feet at 230 mph before accelerating to 260 mph at 20,000 feet. Nils Larson will fly nearby in a NASA F/A-18 to observe. NASA leadership including associate administrator Amit Kshatriya, and Lockheed Martin X-59 project manager Pat LeBeau, will brief media after the flight.

This flight kicks off what NASA calls envelope expansion — Phase 1 of the Quesst mission. It's deliberately incremental: after confirming the aircraft handles like the first flight, the team will push a little higher, a little faster, in controlled steps. The goal is to reach the X-59's design cruise of approximately 925 mph, or Mach 1.4, at 55,000 feet.

"From here on out, once we're airborne, we can increase speed and increase altitude in small, measured chunks, looking at things as we go and not getting ahead of ourselves," Less said. "Eventually we get to supersonic flight — a few more steps — and we're out to Mach 1.4 at about 55,000 feet."

Phase 2 comes after envelope expansion: acoustic validation flights. The X-59's entire design centers on reshaping the shock waves that normally merge into a sonic boom, replacing it with something closer to a quiet thump. NASA will eventually fly the aircraft over selected U.S. communities to measure how people on the ground perceive the sound — data the agency plans to share with U.S. and international regulators to support rule changes that would permit commercial supersonic flight over land.

The X-59 has been a long road. Engine ground tests began in November 2024. The aircraft rolled out of Lockheed Martin's Palmdale facility in August 2023 and was formally unveiled in January 2024. The Quesst mission's ultimate goal — a regulatory framework that allows supersonic commercial aviation over populated areas — depends entirely on whether the X-59 can prove the science of quiet boom suppression in real-world conditions.

Sources: NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center (March 17, 2026): https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/armstrong/nasas-x-59-prepares-for-second-flight/ | NASA Media Advisory M26-022 (March 16, 2026): https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-invites-media-to-learn-about-upcoming-x-59-test-flights/