
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, left, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, second from left, D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, third from…

The X-56A flies a research flight in the skies above Edwards Air Force Base.

Chris Miller, who was test conductor on this X-56 A flight, prepares for the start of the mission.

The X-56A has a busy control room with about a dozen people contributing to a mission.

This week in 1965, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center completed structural assembly of the Saturn V vibration test article, S-IU-500V.

Cheng Moua, X-56A project manager, prepares for an X-56A mission in the control room.

Mai Franz, Samson Truong and Alex Chin continue preparations for flight of the remotely piloted X-56A.

Peter Suh and Jeff Ouellette complete preflight checks of the remotely piloted X-56A.

Alex Chin, Samson Truong and Mei Franz prepare for a flight of the remotely piloted X-56A

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s spacecraft element, which consists of the observatory’s spacecraft bus and the sunshield, was put in…