NASA asked several former SR-71A staffers to help secret restart

NASA quietly recruited retired SR-71 engineers and technicians to support a secret program to return a museum‑display Lockheed SR‑71A (Tail No. 844) to flight. The jet was removed from its display perch at Armstrong Flight Research Center and moved into the former shuttle hangar for inspection; retired test engineers Mike Relja and Tim Conners and others say they were approached about re‑employment. NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has publicly signaled an effort to rebuild an X‑plane fleet and showed an SR‑71‑like silhouette at a summit, but NASA has declined to confirm details of the restart project. David Ash, hired as a special projects director, has been fielding questions from prospective rehires and pressed ahead with in‑hangar work.

The technical and logistical hurdles are substantial. The airframe is nearly 60 years old and has sat exposed for decades, likely accumulating water, sand and corrosion; its J58 engines and a spare have not been rotated or maintained to operational standards for 30+ years. A 2007 destruction of the Blackbird spare-parts stockpile eliminated much of the supply chain, and unique consumables and systems - JP‑7 fuel, triethylborane igniter, bespoke oils, hydraulic fluids and specialized ground carts and tooling - no longer exist. Retirees express skepticism but concede restoration could be done with sufficient funding and engineering resources, while NASA project leadership insists engineering will solve the problems.