NASA Langley’s next moonshot may not be headed to the moon.
It may be flying over Hampton Roads traffic, military airspace, shipping lanes and tunnels with something far more urgent onboard: a human organ.
Through a new Space Act Agreement with the United Network for Organ Sharing, NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton is studying whether drones and advanced aviation systems can help move donor organs faster, safer and more reliably. The partnership brings together NASA’s aeronautics research capabilities and UNOS’ role in the national transplant system to explore whether emerging aviation technology can solve one of medicine’s most time-sensitive logistics problems.
For John Koelling, director of the Aeronautics Research Directorate at NASA Langley, the work is not just about drones. It is about taking research built for complex aviation environments and applying it to a problem where minutes can matter.
“This is a chance to apply NASA Langley technology to a real-world problem that can save people’s lives who are waiting for transplants,” Koelling said in NASA’s announcement. “There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing your technical work have a positive impact on people’s lives.”
NASA and UNOS are studying how drones could help reduce transportation delays, especially in congested or difficult-to-reach areas. Organs already move by aircraft between cities, but the first-mile and last-mile portions of the journey often still depend on ground transportation. In a region like Hampton Roads, where tunnel backups can trap even emergency vehicles, that challenge is easy to understand.
“If there’s an accident in one of the tunnels, and all of a sudden, the ambulance that has got its sirens going and everybody says, get out of the way, nobody can get out of the way,” Koelling said. “And so they’re stuck.”
That kind of real-world constraint is part of what makes Hampton Roads a difficult, and potentially valuable, proving ground. The region includes dense population centers, rural areas, military installations, nuclear power considerations, protected shipping lanes and complex airspace. Koelling said that complexity is exactly why the work matters here.
“We believe that if you can solve the problems that are associated with flying, again, new vehicles with new missions, in this airspace here, if we can solve all of those problems, it’s extendable to the rest of the country,” he said.
The project builds on years of NASA work around drones, advanced air mobility and how new aircraft can safely enter an already crowded national airspace system. Koelling said NASA’s role has often been to help regulators and partners understand how new missions can be introduced without compromising safety.
That caution is not accidental. He pointed to the history of rooftop helicopter service in New York City, which ended after a major accident, as a reminder that public acceptance and safety have to move together.
“We’ve got to do it right,” Koelling said.
The initial research includes testing how sensitive biological materials respond during drone transport. Koelling said NASA recently completed a flight trial involving a human kidney used for research. The organ had originally been intended for transplant, but when doctors determined it was not viable for transplantation, the family agreed it could be used for research.
Koelling said he was struck by that decision.
“Just imagine, in a time of real grieving, to be thoughtful enough and kind enough to think about the future and think about other people, when you’re grieving your loved one, was pretty amazing,” he said.
The flight also marked a milestone for NASA. Koelling said it was NASA’s first beyond visual line-of-sight drone flight involving a human organ, and among the early known tests worldwide to pair human-organ transport with the kind of remote flight operations that would be required for broader use.
Unlike shorter drone demonstrations where pilots or observers can physically track the aircraft, this flight was controlled from about a mile away inside another building. The pilot was not watching the drone in the air. Instead, NASA used systems designed to give the operator a full picture of the drone’s location, behavior and surrounding airspace.
That distinction matters. If drones are ever going to move organs across congested cities, around tunnel traffic or through complex airspace, they cannot depend on someone standing outside and watching the aircraft from takeoff to landing.
“We transported a human organ, beyond visual line of sight, flew it from one place & landed in another,” Koelling said.
The next questions are medical as much as technical. Researchers will assess whether vibration, pressure changes, temperature consistency or other flight conditions affected the organ. If issues are found, Koelling said that simply creates the next round of research questions.
The long-term goal is not to put drones everywhere or replace every current method of transport. It is to understand where the technology makes sense, where it does not and how it could eventually become part of a safe medical logistics system.
For NASA Langley, the project also shows how technology developed by some of the world’s leading aviation researchers can touch lives far beyond aerospace.
Koelling said NASA’s broader mission, including Artemis and returning humans to the moon, remains exciting. But at this stage of his career, this work feels even more personal.
“For me and what I’m kind of passionate about, is seeing this become a reality,” Koelling said. “And to be able to do it in our backyard would be way cooler for me. I’d give up going to the moon to do this.”
