NASA's SEAC4RS study, which stands for Studies of Emissions and Atmospheric Composition, Clouds and Climate Coupling by Regional Surveys, was conducted in Houston, Texas between August 1 and September 30, 2013. More info here.
Several aircraft participated in the study collecting atmospheric samples. For aviation enthusiasts, it was quite the show. Even though Ellington Field in southeast Houston is home to several cool NASA aircraft, SEAC4RS brought some interesting visitors from the Dryden Flight Research Center in California. I was lucky to be working at Ellington Field at the time, but anyone in the Houston area could watch the aircraft flying some unique patterns. My favorite one was the Electra (N426NA) spiraling up from low altitude over the morning traffic near downtown.
On August 22, 2013, NASA hosted a press conference, and I managed to get a pass as a photographer. A friend and I published a short article about the event on the now-defunct SVZM Spotters site.
One of the most iconic aircraft that participated in the study was N817NA, a heavily modified Douglas DC-8-72, originally delivered as a -62 in May of 1969 to Alitalia. It also flew for Braniff as N801BN before joining NASA in 1986 as N717NA (it got re-registered later).
N817NA landed at Palmdale, California three days ago (April 1, 2024) after finishing its last mission in Asia. As the aircraft readies for its retirement, I thought it would be appropriate to dust off some of the photos I took of it in 2013.
Enjoy:
All the subsequent photos show NASA DC-8-72 N817NA on August 22, 2013 at Ellington Field in Houston, Texas:
If you would like to share photos from this article, please credit them to Jorge A. Zajia
