Edwards Air Force Base, California, is the site of the United States Air Force Flight Test Center. It also houses the Dryden Flight Research Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The base covers about 301,000 acres (121,800 hectares) in the Mojave Desert, northeast of Los Angeles. Test pilots fly experimental aircraft nearby. Edwards also served as a landing site for U.S. space shuttles from 1981 to 2011.
The base was established as a bombing and gunnery range in 1933. It became Muroc Army Air Base in 1942. In 1949, the base was renamed for Captain Glen Walter Edwards, a test pilot killed in an aircraft crash nearby.
