A reusable rocket plane has made a
successful test flight from New Mexico's Spaceport America — a prototype craft
built to showcase proprietary advanced launch technologies.
The small unpiloted vehicle soared
into New Mexico skies on Oct. 10, making use of launch services provided by UP
Aerospace of Denver, Colo.
"The effort was similar to the
activity that we've done in the past," said Slater Voorhees, project lead for
Advanced Programs at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company in Littleton,
Colorado.
The most recent test was the third
in a series. Previous flights took place in December 2007 and in August 2008 —
although the second flight suffered an in-flight anomaly causing loss
of the craft.
"This one was a success. It met all
of our mission success goals," Voorhees explained.
Hands-on hardware
There is no substitute for flying
hardware, Voorhees added. In-flight data was both streamed down to the ground
and logged onboard
the rocket plane.
"We've
analyzed things. We've done studies. We've built tools to model things. But we
wanted to take it one step further...to get our engineers using hands-on
hardware," Voorhees told SPACE.com. "There's just so much you can do
when you simulate things, study things, and do PowerPoint presentations. You do
learn a lot."
Voorhees
said that the purpose of the test flights is to take a look at tackling the
ground and launch operations for responsive space needs. That includes
advancing leaner, less-costly, and more rapid launch-to-space capabilities.
The craft
is a prototype, Voorhees said, a demonstration and data-gathering experiment.
"We're trying to understand various technologies of systems and how they play
together," he added.
While
Voorhees was reticent on providing specific details about the vehicle, earlier accounts
of the first two flights pegged the winged hardware at 200-pounds (91 kg). The
vehicle is some 8 feet (2.4 meters) long with a wingspan of about 6 feet (1.8
meters). On its first flight, the vehicle flew skyward from an UP Aerospace
launch rail to an altitude of roughly 3,001 feet (915 meters).
How the
craft is powered has not been revealed.
A quiet event
Working out
of Spaceport America and in cooperation with UP Aerospace has proven
beneficial, Voorhees noted.
The inland launch complex — that
includes UP Aerospace launch facilities — is being built upon 27 square miles in New Mexico,
some 30 miles (48 km) east of Truth or Consequences and 45 miles (72 km) north
of Las Cruces.
"Working with Spaceport America...it's
kind of a green field, a clean slate," Voorhees said. Lockheed Martin has
signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Mexico Spaceport Authority
(NMSA) to conduct testing at Spaceport
America.
The recent test flight was a
non-public, unpublished event at the request of Lockheed Martin.
"Saturday's launch successfully
lifted off at 9:45 a.m. during our four-hour launch window," said Jerry Larson,
President of UP Aerospace.
"This is our third launch for
Lockheed Martin from Spaceport America, which is proving to be an ideal
location for supplying low-cost, fast-turnaround launch operations," Larson
said in a press statement issued by the NMSA.
Larson told SPACE.com that
the suborbital launch of the rocket plane performed a planned trajectory,
landing right on target in a pre-determined touchdown zone at the
spaceport.
"Our recovery crew was dispatched
within 20 minutes after touchdown and we were able to return the vehicle to our
customer for evaluation that same morning," Larson said.
The flight of the test craft
followed a very short launch campaign, Larson said. "We spent just a few days
setting up and testing and then launched during our first window...our smoothest
launch campaign yet."
Runway under construction
According to Larson, his company's
launch business is growing.
"This launch marked the third we
have done this year... the most launches we've conducted in any year. This test
flight also marked our seventh launch from Spaceport America," Larson added.
"There is a growing interest in more launches coming from the U.S. Air Force,
Lockheed Martin and others for next year that could potentially more than
double the number of missions in a year."
Currently under construction,
Spaceport America is tagged as "the world's first purpose-built commercial
space facility."
Spaceport America is working with a
number of companies, such as Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, Moog-FTS, UP
Aerospace, and Armadillo Aerospace.
Now being built is Spaceport
America's 10,000-foot long runway, initially geared for handling flight
operations of Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo
launch system.
That runway is expected to be
complete by late summer 2010 with the Terminal Hangar Facility projected to be
complete by early 2011.
Leonard David has
been reporting on the space industry for more than four decades. He is past
editor-in-chief of the National Space Society's Ad Astra and Space World
magazines and has written for SPACE.com since 1999.
advertisement
