X-24A Descent and Landing at Edwards Air Force Base

This 53-second video from the 1970’s was taken from a camera mounted on the nose of the X-24A Lifting Body. The video shows a descent and landing at Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert. The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Armstrong Flight Research Center), Edwards, CA, in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base from 1963 to 1975. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a pre-determined site. To learn more about the X-24A Lifting Body visit: