SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Aug. 19, 2023 (Gephardt Daily) — “Up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane … it’s … Bezos.”
No. Nor Musk or Branson. It’s the world’s largest flying science laboratory, according to NASA, and it was spotted over the Salt Lake Valley on Friday afternoon.
“Is it a bird? Is it a plane?” NASA asks in a press release on social media on the giant sky lab. “It’s NASA’s DC-8 aircraft!”
“The largest flying science laboratory in the world,” NASA said, flies low over cities in the summer to investigate urban emissions and the atmospheric chemical reactions that affect air quality and climate.
Its route Friday had the converted four-engine jetliner passing over Utah northeasterly, according to NASA. More information — including photos, maps and diagrams — is available on NASA’s website.
The giant nerd bird flies as part of NASA’s program with the acronym AEROMMA.
Seriously. Which stands for Atmospheric Emissions and Reactions Observed from Megacities to Marine Areas.
The program and its airborne labs have been flying for several decades, but a web search indicates NASA has taken to publicizing it more of late.
Such as the news when the DC-8 flew over Chicago earlier this month.
