The incident occurred around 7:30 AM local time at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Centre, collocated with the U.S. Air Force’s Edwards Air Force Base in California. The drone had just taken off when the unspecified fault emerged.
The X-56B remotely piloted aircraft made its maiden flight on April 19th.
“The investigation is underway, and further details will be provided when available,” an official statement from officials at Armstrong said.
In April, NASA only recently began a new flight test series with the X-56B, in cooperation with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Northrop Grumman.
The X-56B uses the same centre body as the earlier X-56A, which concluded testing in 2019. It has a blended wing body planform and is powered by two small turbojets.
