----- Original Message -----
From: NASANews@Ames
Sent: Friday, December 20, 2002 1:23 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: NASA TESTS FUTURE FLIGHT VEHICLE CONCEPTS
Michael Mewhinney Dec. 18, 2002
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Phone: 650/604-3937 or 650/604-9000
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Keith Koehler
Wallops Flight Facility
Phone: 757/824-1579
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Harry Wadsworth
Lockheed-Martin Space Systems
Phone: 504/257-0094
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RELEASE: 02-137AR
NASA TESTS FUTURE FLIGHT VEHICLE CONCEPTS
A hybrid rocket carrying futuristic space vehicle concepts completed
its first flight Dec. 18 from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's
Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Va. Launched at 6:15 a.m.
EST, the rocket's bright plume was seen more than 200 miles away in
New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
The rocket, built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, New Orleans, was
used to launch a NASA designed payload containing three test articles.
The purpose of the Suborbital Aerodynamic Reentry Experiments
(SOREX-2) payload was to develop new high-speed flight test and
control methods. These techniques may be applied to novel designs
for high-speed flight and next generation planetary entry technology.
"This suborbital rocket flight was intended to test these concepts at
more than mach five or five times the speed of sound during reentry,"
according to Marc Murbach, a research engineer from the NASA Ames
Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We are trying to develop a
wind tunnel in the sky. This capability may herald new techniques for
the rapid development of innovative hypersonic flight concepts." The
SOREX-2 project team is currently analyzing data on the payload's
performance.
The payload, a joint project between Ames and Wallops, included a
'wave rider' flying wedge, a linear aerobrake (or hypersonic
parachute), and a Slotted Compression Ramp Probe (SCRAMP), a super
stable planetary reentry probe. The wedge is about 50 inches (127
centimeters) long and was to free fly like a glider after
deployment.
The launch is the first test flight of a large hybrid propulsion
system. Lockheed Martin's Michoud Operations designed and built the
60-foot (18 meters) long rocket to demonstrate that hybrid propulsion
technology offers a low cost solution for delivering payloads. The
two-foot (.6 meters) diameter rocket used liquid oxygen and solid
fuel to provide a thrust of 60,000 pounds and achieved an altitude of
approximately 43.5 miles (70 kilometers).
"Hybrid propulsion offers significant advantages over solid fuel
propellants in that hybrids are non-explosive, able to be throttled,
low cost and environmentally benign," said Randy Tassin, vice
president, Program Management & Technical Operations for Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Michoud Operations, La.
Lockheed Martin signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA Marshall Space
Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., in 1999 to develop, test and launch
the hybrid sounding rocket. The program goal is to develop a
single-stage hybrid propulsion system capable of replacing existing
two- and three-stage sounding rockets.
-end-
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