NASA Hercules N436NA

This Lockheed L383 HC-130H Hercules c/n 5104 was built as 86-0420 and then allocated to the US Coast Guard at Clearwater, Florida with serial number 1717 in 1987. 

It transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Centre at the Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia. and allocated the US civil registration of N436NA on 26-03-2015.

Below is from one of NASA blurbs.

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (GSFC) Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) Aircraft Office operates a NASA HC-130H Hercules, N436NA c/n 5104, research/cargo aircraft to support airborne scientific research activities and movement of NASA cargo. The HC-130H is used to perform scientific research, provide logistics support on an as-needed basis to other NASA missions, and can be used as a technology test bed for new airborne and satellite instrumentation. The aircraft is also available to support NASA range surveillance and recovery operations as needed. The C-130H is a self-sufficient aircraft that can operate from short field civilian and military airports to remote areas of the world in support of scientific studies and other operations. 

The first two photographs are from Tony McFarlin who caught its arrival into Christchurch International on the 22nd.

Below I captured it today (23rd) awaiting its first research flight.