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 |  | Successful Mock-up Test Shows X-37 Progress
posted: 01:37 pm ET
16 May 2001
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Progress on NASA's X-37 space plane continues to meet key milestones, including another successful flight of test model X-40A, Boeing said Tuesday
Progress on NASA's X-37 spaceplane continues to meet key milestones, including another successful flight of test model X-40A, Boeing said Tuesday.
"At this point in time the X-37 vehicle is progressing along well," said Dick Cervisi, X-37 program manager for Boeing Phantom Works. "Over two-thirds of the X-37 design is complete."
In particular, Boeing officials pointed to Wednesday's sixth successful free-flight test of the X-40A, an 85-percent scale version of the X-37 experimental reentry vehicle, as evidence of progress.
An Army Chinook helicopter lifted the X-40A to an altitude of 14,992 feet (4,570 meters) and released it at 9:16 a.m. EDT (13:16 GMT). The test vehicle reached a speed of 297 miles (415 kilometers) per hour before the wheels rolled to a stop at Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California at 9:17 a.m. EDT (13:17 GMT).
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"We are particularly excited about the X-40A flight-test phase. The recent series of successful flights has really inspired our team," said Ron Prosser, vice president of advanced space and communications for Boeing Phantom Works.
The pilotless X-37 will enable NASA to test advanced technologies in the harsh environment of space and especially in reentry through Earth's atmosphere. According to Boeing, it will be the only X-vehicle capable of conducting on-orbit operations and collecting test data at Mach 25 (reentry) speeds.
NASA hopes the X-40A's free flight and landing tests will reduce the risk of flight-testing the X-37.
The X-40A was free-flight tested once before, in August 1998, at Holloman Air Force Base in southern New Mexico, for the Air Force's Space Maneuver Vehicle program.
Wednesday's objectives repeated complex maneuvers from the earlier test, monitoring vehicle performance during pitch adjustments, in which the nose is raised and lowered. A series of up to seven free flights is planned.
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, NASA's lead center for space transportation systems development, manages the X-37, while Dryden Flight Research Center is responsible for the X-37/X-40A flight-test activities.
Program manager Cervisi said Boeing is "looking forward" to beginning final X-37 assembly this summer.
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