X 38 Soars in Drop Test


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	X 38 Soars in Drop Test By Glen Golightly Houston Bureau Chief posted: 12:36 pm ET 30 March 2000

NASA’s X 38 Crew Return Vehicle flew its longest and highest test today over California’s Mojave Desert

NASA’s X 38 Crew Return Vehicle flew its longest and highest test today over California’s Mojave Desert.

At about noon Eastern Standard Time (17:00 GMT), the wedge-shaped craft dropped at about 39,000 feet (11,885 meters) from a B 52 Stratofortress for a 10 minute, 20 second flight to test control surfaces and a parafoil that is used to slow the craft down.

The X 38 is a prototype for a six-person "flying lifeboat" to be used with the International Space Station to replace the three-person Russian Soyuz module.

The only apparent glitch in the test conducted at the Dryden Flight Research Center was the left-hand landing gear's failure to deploy. No damage was visible on live video aired on NASA Select TV.

Images

A prototype of the parafoil to be used on the X-38 lowers a pallet to the desert floor near Yuma, Ariz. on January 19. The parafoil, the largest flown to date, has a surface area of about 7,500 square feet or a surface area 1.5 times grea ter than a Boein

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Today’s test was the fifth flight for the X 38. A test in February was canceled due to weather and electrical problems.