The secretive U.S. Air Force NT-43A RAT55 was spotted flying with a NASA callsign in one of the areas reserved for the launch of the Artemis II mission, opposite to the one used by the WB-57 Canberra.
NASA is set to launch the Artemis II mission on Apr. 1, 2026, at 6:24 pm EDT (22:24 GMT), which will be the first crewed lunar flight since Apollo 17 in 1972. As usual for NASA missions, one of the agency’s WB-57 Canberra high-altitude research aircraft will observe the launch while flying in the airspace surrounding the Launch Complex 39B of the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), from where the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft will depart.
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However, it appears that the WB-57 will be joined by another specialized, much more secretive asset: the U.S. Air Force’s NT-43A. The highly-modified Boeing 737-200, better known with its callsign RAT55, is usually employed as Radar Airborne Testbed (RAT) thought to be used almost exclusively to evaluate the radar signatures of stealthy aircraft.
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“Thought” could be the key word here, as one would not expect this platform to be observing the launch of a NASA mission, since SLS and Orion are not stealth aircraft whose radar signature needs to be evaluated. Although there is no official confirmation and we can’t be sure about the involvement of RAT55, there are some hints worth noting.
The first and more obvious is that the aircraft was tracked while flying on Mar. 31 with a NASA callsign, specifically NASA522. The identity of the aircraft was also confirmed by a photo sent to us by @Brevardjetphoto, which you can see as the cover of this article, captured as the aircraft was flying over Melbourne, Florida, on the way to its assigned area.
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The second is that the NT-43 was flying at the same time of the WB-57, with each occupying an area reserved by NOTAMs (NOtice To AirMen) for the launch.
Specifically, the WB-57 was flying in an area reserved to the south of Launch Complex 39B. The WB-57’s presence was also mentioned in the NOTAM 03/652 (KZMA-A1037/26) itself:
!CARF 03/652 ZMA AIRSPACE DCC ARTEMIS II WB-57 SUPT STNR ALT RESERVATION WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 283100N0803100W TO 280300N0792900W TO 273700N0795000W TO 280000N0810000W TO POINT OF ORIGIN FL450-FL500 2604012100-2604020100
The NT-43 was flying in an area opposite to the WB-57’s, to the north of the launch pad, reserved by NOTAM 03/643 (KZMA-A1035/26):
!CARF 03/643 ZMA AIRSPACE DCC EROP K0949 WINDOWABC SUPT STNR ALT RESERVATION WI AN AREA DEFINED AS 285000N0804700W TO 290400N0792900W TO 292800N0793400W TO 291500N0810100W TO POINT OF ORIGIN FL200-FL350 2604012125-2604020105
Both aircraft were visible on flight tracking website
