NASA B-52 takesoff on RWY 04
This NASA F-18 served as a chase and photo aircraft.
EDWARDS, Calif. - The world's largest parafoil carried an advanced
X-38
test craft to a touchdown Thursday at
NASA's Dryden Flight Research
Center at Edwards, Calif.
This was the first flight test of the
final configuration of the X-38
atmospheric test vehicle that included
a rounded aft end, identical to the
shape of the X-38 space flight vehicle
now under construction at Johnson
Space Center, Houston, Texas. A space
test of an uncrewed X-38 is
planned for August 2002 when it will
be released from a Space Shuttle to
fly back to Earth.
Released from under the wing of NASA's
B-52 aircraft at an altitude of
36,500 feet, the X-38 had a flight control
problem that resulted in a
360-degree roll following the drop from
the B-52. As scheduled, at 24
seconds into the flight the X-38's 80-foot
diameter drogue parachute was
deployed and the vehicle recovered from
the roll.
The flight test also featured a 7,500-square-foot
parafoil with a surface
area more than one and a half times
that of the wings of a 747 jumbo jet. A
second problem occurred at 19,000 feet
when the parafoil began its
deployment while the X-38 was in a nose
up attitude. However, the
parafoil deployed without damage and
flew to a safe touchdown less than
half a mile from the original target.
Touchdown speed was less than 40
miles an hour. "Today our design faced
a test. Most systems worked well,
some didn't," said X-38 program manager
John Muratore. "We're going to
take the results of this test, improve
the design, and we will be back to test
it again. That's the nature of flight
testing," he added.
The X-38 is a prototype "lifeboat" for
the International Space Station,
designed to carry up to seven passengers
home from orbit in an
emergency. The project combines proven
technologies -- a shape
borrowed from a 1970s Air Force lifting
body project -- with some of the
most cutting-edge aerospace technology
available today, such as the
most powerful electric motors ever used
to control a spacecraft.
An innovative approach is enabling the
X-38 to be developed at a tenth of
the cost of past estimates for such
a project. Although the United States
leads the development of the X-38, international
space agencies also are
participating. Contributing nations
include Germany, Belgium, Italy, the
Netherlands, France, Spain, Sweden and
Switzerland.
Throughout the rest of this year and
2001, increasingly complex, uncrewed
X-38 atmospheric flight tests will continue
at Dryden.
(To see the STS-92 landing photos click here!)
(To see the STS-92 launch photos click here!)