The innovative carrier plane used to air launch SpaceShipOne
has a new mission. At the Mojave, California
inland spaceport, the White Knight mothership has been involved in fit and
high-speed taxi checks with a new passenger - the X-37, an unpiloted, reusable
spaceplane.
The
White Knight/X-37 combination has undergone a set of recent ground evaluations,
including high-speed taxi testing this week.
Designed by Scaled
Composites of Mojave, California,
the White Knight was utilized to haul SpaceShipOne to altitude and then
released the piloted rocketplane for its record-setting suborbital treks,
including the snagging of the high-stakes $10 million Ansari X Prize last year.
In
its new role, the White Knight is being readied to carry the Boeing, Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NASA-supported vehicle skyward.
No official word yet on when the twosome will take to the air, or what is
the timeframe for the first drop test of the X-37 using the White Knight.
Technology testbed
The
X-37 has been billed as an unpiloted, autonomously operated vehicle designed to
conduct on-orbit operations and collect test data in the Mach 25 (reentry)
region of flight.
The
Boeing-built X-37 is geared to be a test bed for airframe, propulsion and
operation technologies designed to make space transportation and operations
significantly more affordable.
According
to a Boeing fact sheet on the craft, the X-37 project is exploring potential
new commercial and military reusable space vehicle market applications, be they
on-orbit satellite repair to the next-generation of totally reusable launch
vehicles.
Late
last year, NASA transferred its X-37 technology demonstration program to the
Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The Approach and Landing
Test Vehicle (ALTV) has been at the Mojave airport since mid-April,
explained Jan Walker, a DARPA spokesperson. "The first taxi test occurred
earlier this month. In addition to the taxi tests, the ALTV also plans
captive carry flights and drop tests. The tests will continue through this
summer, but we've not announced any specific dates," Walker told SPACE.com.
Checkered history
NASA's
involvement in the X-37 dates back to 1998, when the project was selected as
the first of a planned series of flight demonstrators dubbed Future X. At the
time, NASA agreed to share the X-37's projected $173 million cost with Boeing
and the U.S. Air Force. After the Air Force announced in 2001 that it would
stop funding the project, NASA told Boeing that the
company would have to submit a new proposal for the X-37 to be eligible for
additional funding.
After
persistent prodding from U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), NASA in 2002
awarded Boeing a $301 million contract for two X-37 vehicles instead of one.
One of those vehicles would conduct a series of drop tests within the
atmosphere, paving the way for the flight of the orbit and re-entry vehicle in
2006.
But
NASA advised Boeing in late 2003 to throttle back on development of the orbit
and re-entry vehicle and directed Boeing to stop work on that part of the
program altogether. X-37 was dealt a further setback last year when a NASA
review concluded that the program was not a good fit with the agency's new
space exploration agenda.
Brian Berger of Space
News contributed to this story.
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