What's inside

X-Press Banner
Volume 40, Issue 6, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
March 20, 1998

 
Research Roundup
In Touch
People and Places
Exchange Events
News Briefs

X-38 drop test successful

button Flight test is culmination of two years of
hard work by Dryden and JSC team.

Development of the X-38, an innovative new spacecraft design planned for use as a future International Space Station emergency crew return "lifeboat," passed a major milestone March 12 with a successful first unpiloted flight test.

The first X-38 atmospheric test vehicle was dropped from under the wing of NASA's B-52 aircraft at Dryden and completed a descent from 23,000 feet altitude. The test focused on the use of the X-38's parafoil parachute, which deployed as planned within seconds after the vehicle's release from the B-52 and guided the test craft to landing.

X-38 drop photo

The X-38 passed a major milestone March 12 with its first atmospheric drop test. NASA file photos by Carla Thomas

"This was a real experimental flight test and the culmination of two years of hard work by a team from the Johnson Space Center and the Dryden Flight Research Center," X-38 Project Manager John Muratore said. "We had done everything we could to minimize the unknowns. But the real proof of the concept is a successful flight. We got one of those Thursday, and we plan to do this about 20 more times over the next two years to prove we're ready to fly from space."

Atmospheric drop tests of the X-38 will continue for the next two years using three increasingly complex test vehicles. The drop tests will increase in altitude to a height of 50,000 feet and include longer flight times for the test craft prior to deployment of the parafoil. In 2000, an unpiloted space test vehicle is planned to be deployed from a Space Shuttle and descend to a landing. The X-38 crew

continued
 

New dimension

button Dryden launches Airborne Science Program

By Alan Brown
Aerospace Projects Writer

Dryden has added a new dimension to its traditional role as an aeronautical flight research facility this year, as scientific missions by a trio of specially modified aircraft begin in the Airborne Science Program.

The program at Dryden, NASA's Center of Excellence for Atmospheric Flight Operations, currently involves three aircraft, a highly modified DC-8 Airborne Laboratory and two ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft.

"We're looking forward to a productive year of collecting science data for our partners, their scientists and investigators," said Gary Shelton, Dryden's deputy director for airborne science. "The initiation of operational science missions from Dryden marks a major milestone for the program."

continued

 

March 6, 1998 X-Press

NASA logo Responsible NASA Official: John Childress
For questions, contact: Dryden Web Group
Page Curator: Marty Curry
Modified: March 20, 1998
 		Dryden logo