A high-altitude NASA research jet turned a Houston runway into a shower of sparks when its landing gear failed, forcing pilots to slide the aircraft in on its belly and triggering a brief fire. The dramatic emergency, captured in multiple videos, destroyed a specialized platform that had been supporting human spaceflight work but left everyone on board alive and able to walk away.
The incident involved a 50-year-old WB-57 variant that had been flying science and test missions for decades, including work tied to the Artemis II program. Its fiery skid across the concrete at Ellington Field underscored both the risks of operating aging but heavily modified aircraft and the layers of training and procedure that kept a terrifying sequence from becoming a mass-casualty crash.
The terrifying approach and belly slide
Witness footage shows the NASA jet descending unusually low and flat over Houston, its landing gear still tucked away as it lines up with the runway. In one clip, the aircraft appears to hold a shallow flare before its fuselage meets the concrete, sending a plume of smoke and a trail of sparks racing behind it as it skids along the length of the strip at Ellington Field. The scene, unfolding at an airfield on the southeast side of the city, turned a routine return into a high-stakes test of crew discipline and emergency planning that played out in full view of nearby neighborhoods and drivers on surrounding roads.
Video of the gear-up touchdown circulated widely, including a Video clip that shows the jet sliding in a shower of sparks and smoke as it decelerates. Another angle shared from Houston captures the moment the aircraft settles onto its underside and begins to skid, with the glow from friction lighting up the dusk around the runway and confirming that the landing gear never deployed despite the crew’s attempts to troubleshoot the problem in flight.
Inside the mechanical failure and emergency response
NASA has said the emergency began with a mechanical issue in the landing gear system of the high-altitude research aircraft, a problem that left the crew unable to extend the wheels despite repeated checks. In a brief statement, the agency described the event as a “gear-up landing” and emphasized that the pilots followed established procedures once it became clear the undercarriage would not lock into place. That meant burning down fuel, coordinating with controllers at Ellington Field in Houston, and configuring the jet for a controlled slide on its belly rather than risking an asymmetric or partial gear deployment that could have flipped the aircraft.
Officials later confirmed that the jet was one of NASA’s WB-57 high-altitude platforms, part of a small fleet of three aircraft that operate from Ellington Field and support missions ranging from atmospheric science to human spaceflight testing. A short statement shared on social media described how a NASA WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft experienced a mechanical issue and was forced into a gear-up landing at Ellington Field in Houston, while a separate clip from a national broadcaster reiterated that a mechanical issue with a high-altitude NASA research plane led to a belly landing and that the agency is reviewing the landing gear malfunction in detail.
Crew survival, fire, and damage on the runway
As the jet scraped along the runway, friction and ruptured fuel lines produced a burst of flames that briefly engulfed the underside of the fuselage. Emergency crews at Ellington Field were already staged along the strip, racing in behind the sliding aircraft with foam and water once it came to a stop. The fire, while visually dramatic, was quickly contained, and responders focused on getting the crew out of the cockpit before heat or smoke could spread into the pressurized sections of the airframe.
NASA officials stressed that all crew members survived and were able to exit the aircraft, a point echoed in a statement that “Response to the incident is ongoing, and all crew are safe at this time,” attributed to a spokesperson identified as Stevens. A separate account described the landing as a controlled emergency belly landing at Ellington Field in Houston, crediting safety procedures and professional airmanship for the outcome and noting that the NASA WB-57 high-altitude research aircraft was heavily damaged as it slid to a halt on the runway.
A 50-year-old workhorse and the Artemis II ripple effect
The aircraft that burned on the Texas runway was not a new prototype but a 50-year-old NASA jet that had been extensively modified over its lifetime to serve as a high-altitude research platform. These WB-57 variants, originally derived from the English Electric Canberra, have become some of the agency’s most versatile airborne laboratories, flying above commercial traffic to collect atmospheric data, chase eclipses, and support spaceflight testing. The loss of one airframe from this small fleet is significant, not only because of its age and unique modifications but also because of the missions it was scheduled to support in the coming years.
Reporting on the aftermath noted that the 50-year-old NASA jet had been part of work tied to Artemis II, the planned crewed mission around the Moon, and that its fiery crash in Texas effectively removed it from that role. New footage highlighted how one of the specialized jets used in the Artemis II mission support program went skidding down the runway in flames, raising questions about how quickly NASA can reassign or replace such a tailored asset without slowing the broader schedule for human lunar exploration.
What the landing reveals about NASA’s risk calculus
For NASA, the incident is both a success story in crisis management and a warning about the limits of flying heavily modified, aging aircraft in demanding roles. The agency operates three WB-57 high-altitude aircraft, each packed with custom sensors and avionics that make them far more capable than their original airframes but also more complex to maintain. In the wake of the belly landing, NASA has said it will transparently update the public as it gathers more information and evaluates whether the landing gear malfunction points to a broader issue that could affect the rest of the fleet or future missions that depend on these jets going forward.
Early accounts from Houston describe how NASA is releasing more information about the hard landing at Ellington Air, detailing the sequence of events and the condition of the aircraft as investigators comb through the wreckage and flight data. Local coverage from HOUSTON emphasized that the research plane made its emergency arrival at Ellington Air after the mechanical issue, and that the agency is working with airport authorities to clear debris and assess runway damage on site. As with any serious aviation incident, the findings will feed back into training, maintenance schedules, and decisions about how long to keep these specialized platforms in front-line service.
