Posted on 01/28/2004 11:30:02 AM PST by BenLurkin
The NASA X-43A hypersonic research vehicle successfully met a milestone on its road to a historic launch to test supersonic combustion ramjet technology, also known as a scramjet. The research vehicle and its Pegasus booster rocket were carried aloft Monday beneath the wing of NASA's B-52 workhorse for a dress rehearsal of the launch mission.
After taking off from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at 3:31 p.m., the B-52 headed for the restricted airspace of the Pacific Missile Test Range off the California coast.
The mother ship returned safely to Dryden about two hours later, the research vehicle and booster still securely attached to its pylon.
"The flight went very smoothly," said Paul Reukauf, Dryden's X-43A deputy project manager. "Our only concern was potential turbulence at high altitudes, but as it turned out we didn't have any."
"We met all our objectives for the flight now," he said.
Data gathered during the captive-carry flight will be used in preparation for the launch mission, tentatively scheduled for late February.
When launched, the unmanned X-43A is expected to reach Mach 7, seven times the speed of sound. Once dropped from beneath the B-52, the Pegasus rocket will provide the initial boost before the research vehicle's own scramjet begins functioning.
Unlike conventional rocket engines which must carry oxygen to burn with the fuel, scramjets use oxygen from the air, thus saving weight and space for launch vehicles.
Following the brief flight, the X-43A will drop into the Pacific and will not be recovered.
The next mission is actually the second test of the X-43A vehicle. The first vehicle and its Pegasus booster were lost shortly after release from the B-52 in June 2001. The vehicles deviated from the planned flight path and were deliberately destroyed.
Since that time, several changes have been made to the vehicle to reduce the possibility of another X-43A. However, NASA officials caution that the very nature of the experimental vehicle's launch is high-risk.
SCRAMJET PROPULSION SYSTEM FOR GUN-LAUNCHED KINETIC ENERGY PENETRATORS
Lazy writer/editor alert. They're TESTING the X-43A - why would they want to "reduce the possibility" of it?
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