Blackbird Comes Out of Retirement

March 9, 1993

An SR-71A Blackbird reconnaissance aircraft comes out of retirement to fly its first scientific flight for NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The aircraft, fitted with an ultraviolet video camera in the nose bay, is flown to an altitude of approximately 83,000 feet and collects more than 140,000 images of stars and comets.

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