Nasa’s DC-8 ‘airborne science laboratory’ (Nasa)

Nasa appears to be investigating the San Andreas fault – the tectonic boundary that runs for 750 miles down through California.

Reports of a plane flying low and zig-zagging over the faultline emerged at the end of last month. This was after California was hit with high-profile earthquakes that created damage to buildings and roads.

It was up to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department to report via Twitter that the plane with the callsign NASA817 was being flown by the US space agency.

Flying at less than 1,000 feet meant the plane was extremely noticeable to residents of Southern California on the ground. Nasa hasn’t responded to inquiries about why the plane was flying so low.




While the obvious question is whether or not the plane is mapping seismic activity, there is another suggestions from internet users.

Low flying plane over Altadena and Southern California today. It just passed along the foothills a few minutes ago. We have been told the plane belongs to NASA. Plane is a DC-8 with a call sign of NASA817#LASD #altadena #NASA pic.twitter.com/CBqDR4WW7T — Deputy Dan Paige (@LasdDan) July 23, 2019

One Twitter user found out that NASA817 is responsible for atmospheric analysis and believes it is tasked with measuring the effect of smoke from fires caused by the quakes.

This seems to make sense given Nasa’s own tweets on the subject.

What’s in the smoke? How do fires affect air quality across North America? A team of #NASA and @NOAA researchers plan to answer these questions and many more by studying the impacts of smoke across the country. Learn more via @NASAEarth. https://t.co/T5A9rSslPM pic.twitter.com/FTFCl6W9AD — NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard) July 22, 2019

Of course, the conspiracy theories weren’t far behind.

Possibly scanning for data and information about the new supervolcano that is slowly forming in Southern California. — Florida Islander 🏝️🐊 (@SBWalden) July 24, 2019

Nasa hasn’t commented publically on what it’s plane was doing over the faultline, but we can glean from the agency’s Airborne Science website that the DC-8-70 plane ‘provides a unique set of Nasa supported aircraft that benefit the earth science community’.

It’s also been modified to ‘carry the sensors that provide data to support and augment NASA spaceborne missions.’.

This isn’t the only mysterious plane in the USA’s fleet. The US Air Force has a ‘space plane’ designated X-37B that conducts intelligence operations from orbit.

It was built by Boeing and is flown remotely. The craft – also known as Orbital Test Vehicle 4 – is on a mission the U.S. will only describe as ‘classified’.

The X-37B space plane is currently on its fifth mission and, in the process, has passed 500 consecutive days in orbit. A sixth mission is expected to begin sometime later this year, although we aren’t sure when.