January 31, 2026
Belly flop or baller move?
NASA's WB-57 crash lands at Houston
Pilot belly-slides vintage NASA plane; fans split: crash or masterclass
TLDR: A NASA WB-57 slid in for a gear-up landing in Houston with no injuries, and NASA is investigating. Commenters are split between praising a cool-headed save, debating if it’s a “crash,” worrying if this rare science jet is totaled, and speculating about its recent missions—potentially affecting future Artemis II observations.
NASA’s rare WB-57—a Cold War–era jet now used for science—made a dramatic gear-up landing in Houston, sliding in on its belly while the pilot kept cool and the crew walked away safe. The local video had viewers gasping, but the real fireworks were in the comments, where the community immediately split into camps.
On one side: the hype squad calling it a textbook save, with one user imagining the cockpit soundtrack as a triumphant “i have control.” Another voice insisted, “That’s not a crash, that’s a controlled landing,” turning the thread into a semantics cage match—crash vs. control, heroics vs. hardware failure. On the other side: the worriers and wistful fans, like one poster who’d seen the WB-57 at work mapping floods and fears this historic bird is now toast. Cue the practical crowd asking if the plane is repairable, while the conspiracy-curious piped up to wonder if this is the same WB-57 rumored to be “in the middle east for an extended duration.” Spicy!
Facts check in: NASA says everyone’s okay and an investigation is underway. These three WB-57s are the agency’s high-flying workhorses, used to chase hurricanes, sample cosmic dust, and even watch rocket launches—and the damage here could ripple into future plans, including watching the Artemis II mission. For now, the runway’s got skid marks, and so does the internet’s comment section—equal parts awe, anxiety, and aviation trivia flexing.
Key Points
- •A NASA WB-57 conducted a gear-up emergency landing at Ellington Field in Houston; all crew were uninjured.
- •NASA attributed the incident to a mechanical issue and said response efforts are ongoing.
- •A thorough investigation will be conducted, with NASA pledging transparent public updates.
- •The WB-57 traces its roots to the B-57 developed by English Electric and later used by the RAF and USAF.
- •NASA’s WB-57s support diverse science missions and planned observations for Artemis II and Orion reentry; impact from this incident is not yet clear.