NASA Employee Incentive Flight - Kelly Jellison

Kelly Jellison, lead avionics technician for NASA's C-20 and Gulfstream G-V aircraft, takes part in an employee incentive flight in an F/A-18 aircraft at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman established the ride-along program to recognize and reward workforce members for their dedication to advancing the agency's priorities.

What is said in the film

All I have is good sized man. He said he'd come back. He seen you without the beard yet? legs and stuff like that. Okay, one more.

You ready to go? comes. I wait for the Eight. Four six Edwards, ground 123 left. Taxi via echo Charlie for runway.

Right. Two. Two. Three left. I cut Charlie right.

Two. Three. Eight. Four. Six.

Nice for tires. We don't have a. One out here to turn our two out of burner. Just like that. A little better get up and go.

I checked the lights so I don't overspeed anything. Whoops. Looks good. Lights look good. That's the for NASA.

Eight. Four. Six airport, then. Have a good fight. All right.

Thanks. All right. Bell. Space housing. Just climb on up.

Right there. We don't need this display anymore, so we'll go to radar and. These clouds a little bit. Switching four, six. Roger.

All right. So I'm just going to do some low idle banks to get down there. And I think there's 1:00. I don't know where your house is. Oh how would I keep that out?

Contract Fremont South for the airport. That's it for six. Roger. And somebody in contact sport. Goodyear.

Oh, yeah. We went right over it. Cool. There's Kyle city airport. Yep.

This is where you have to watch your ears. So if your ears are causing problems, just let me know. I'll mellow it out. Yeah. Everything's good so far.

Okay. There's a lot of hermits up here, if you know what I mean. Want to get away from it? Except when we currently hot, sir. I believe I see where you're at currently.

Stand by. So if you look over on the right side, it's coming up. You'll see what looks like a dirt runway. It's an Al shape. Tennessee.

But years ago, it was in great shape at about 1:00 right now. So you see some guy scratched out a little bit of a runway down there? No, I don't see. It's like 2:00 just right below us. I mean, right there on the right side.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So that's what these people out here do. 63. We'll throw it down to four.

We got plenty of fuel. In the complex. Wow. Kind So there's a river down there. Down here?

Yeah. We'll just follow along the river maneuver for a while. I did mention in the brief, shadows can be deceiving in terms of terrain. They can block it. Okay.

And so that's just 5000. Don't worry about it. There's a preset altitude expected when he finds jets and you go up around these things. Do you want to have a certain amount of excess energy so you can use it to climb up a hill? So three 5420 there is a fair amount of water.

I would say incredible. People are doing their vacation routine maybe. Coming up here a little bit is a waterfall. I'll let you know ahead of time. And it's sort of on the left side.

It's always runs on these waterfalls. They're just a little dry. And so that's what happens. All right. We'll go up a little slow.

That's fine. This is. I said you can do with a set. Come back around. Just get some speed.

And you see those pinnacles out there? We're going to go. We're going to go above those. Oh. Hills 5.

7. Looking good. I really should have the right. I'll turn it around here. We'll put it down to about 500.

Just keeps going and going. This is gorgeous. And we won't be entering the I wonder. Be careful. Some of these guys enter this stuff.

They go 500 knots. You know, I mean, I'm not into the all that stuff. There's plenty of speed here. It used to be a little lookout tower somewhere up here. It.

Holy cow. Oh. Thank you. Oh, that was amazing. So nicely clear out here.

Little under a little angling. I'll take it to the winds. Here. Gear five full checks. Good morning.

Good morning. Got it. We'll use a little bit of aerial break. We'll call. Get off the runway.

70912201420. Cleared lower third gas 18, landing zone. Coach. I do is look for me anyway. All right, you can arm your seat.

I mean, safe your seat. Turn right around. Safety. Bye. People are, like, worried about it.

It's like. Stop there. Stop there. Water on your gear.

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