NASA Tests Future Flight Vehicle Concepts

A hybrid rocket carrying futuristic space vehicle concepts completed its first flight December 18 from Goddard's Wallops Flight Facility. 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 (SOAREX-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.

For more on the SOAREX-2 launch, go to: http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/news-release/releases/2002/02-44.htm