Suited Up for Science: NASA ER-2 Pilot Prepares for GEMx Flight
NASA ER-2 pilot Kirt Stallings waits inside the transport vehicle moments before boarding the airborne science aircraft at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. Outside the window, the aircraft is being prepared for a high-altitude mission supporting the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), a multi-year NASA-US Geological campaign Survey to map critical mineral resources in the western United States. The GEMx team estimates that undiscovered deposits of at least some of the 50 minerals deemed critical to U.S. national security, the technology industry, and clean energy exist domestically, and that modern mineral maps will support exploration by the private sector.
In 2025 alone, the ER-2 flew 36 science missions, collecting more than seven billion measurements over 200 flight hours, contributing to the largest airborne data set of surface mineralogy ever collected during a single NASA campaign. For this mission, the pilots flew at approximately 65,000 feet altitude, requiring them to wear specially designed pressure suits to operate safely in the thin atmosphere.
Image credit: NASA/Christopher LC Clark
Text credit: Darin L. Dinius
