English: This 1968 photo shows the bulbous X-24A lifting body research vehicle on the lakebed adjacent to the NASA Flight Research Center. The X-24 was one of a group of lifting bodies flown by the NASA Flight Research Center (now Dryden Flight Research Center), Edwards, California, in a joint program with the United States Air Force at Edwards Air Force Base from 1963 to 1975. The lifting bodies were used to demonstrate the ability of pilots to maneuver and safely land wingless vehicles designed to fly back to Earth from space and be landed like an airplane at a predetermined site. Lifting bodies' aerodynamic lift, essential to flight in the atmosphere, was obtained from their shape.