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What Does NASA Do?

NASA's mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research.

To do that, thousands of people have been working around the world -- and off of it -- for almost 50 years, trying to answer some basic questions. What's out there in space? How do we get there? What will we find? What can we learn there, or learn just by trying to get there, that will make life better here on Earth?

An F-16XL aircraft was used by the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, in a NASA-wide program to improve laminar airflow on aircraft flying at sustained supersonic speeds. It was the first program to look at laminar flow on swept wings at speeds faster than sound.