Path: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans .net!spool.mu.edu!umn.edu!lynx.unm.edu!q5022531.mdc.com!user From: cohen@ssdgwy.mdc.com (Andy Cohen) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: A DC-X article from MDA Followup-To: sci.space Date: 17 Sep 1993 15:37:56 GMT Organization: MDA-W, SSD Lines: 80 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: q5022531.mdc.com A first in rocket history DELTA CLIPPER-EXPERIMENTAL (DC-X) LANDS VERTICALLY By Anne McCauley and Kerry Veale It's the first time anyone has ever landed a rocket vertically on Earth," says Paul Klevatt, McDonnell Douglas DC-X program manager. "We all held our breath during the flight, but the DC-X did exactly what we designed it to do." Developed for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) Single Stage Rocket Technology Program, the DC-X is an experimental single stage, vertical takeoff and landing vehicle. On Aug. 18, the DC-X took off at 4:43 p.m. MDT and vertically hovered at 150 feet. Remaining in a vertical position, the vehicle moved in a straight line 350 feet and descended vertically, touching down on the landing pad. The entire flight lasted 60 seconds. Col. Worden, the BMDO deputy for technology, compares the hover test to "a high speed taxi test of a conventional aircraft." Klevatt says that the hover test demonstrates that the DC-X guidance, navigation and control systems are ready for the flight test series, which will gradually expand the DC-X's flight envelope according to standard aircraft flight test practices. In the hover test, one side of the fiberglass nose cone was scorched. It has been replaced with a new nose cone which is being coated with the same insulation as the sides of the rocket. The next test will start the flight envelope expansion program. In this first series the DC-X will demonstrate flight controllability and overall system performance including vertical liftoff to an altitude of 300 feet, horizontal movement 350 feet uprange, and vertical landing. Altitudes and duration of flight will be continue to be expanded during the next several months of testing. More than 50 McDonnell Douglas employees work on the DC-X program at four locations: Huntington Beach, Calif., White Sands Missile Range, N. M., St. Louis, Mo., and Kennedy Space Center, Fla. At White Sands, the team lives in Las Cruces and commutes 65 miles across the white gypsum sands to the test facility. They meet to carpool at 4:30 a.m., and every day starts with a team meeting at 5:45 a.m. Normal daily temperatures frequently reach 110 degrees. Gerry Coleman, MDA's ground support manager, handed out red socks to the flight crew before the hover test. The tradition of wearing red for launches dates back to the first Thor rockets launched in the late 1950s. 'TheyÕre not superstitious, but why take chances?" he says. 'TheyÕre highly technical engineers, but it's fun for the team." Before the hover test, the DC-X vehicle and ground support systems underwent an extensive set of propellant loading tests and 235 seconds of cumulative hot fire tests at NASA's White Sands Test Facility (WSTF) and the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range (WSMR). These tests are intended to demonstrate that a rocket-powered reusable launch vehicle can be operated and maintained in a manner similar to aircraft. "So far at WSMR, with the vehicle and ground support system in flight configuration, we conducted two major hot fire engine tests and now the hover test, all in a period of ten days," says Pete Conrad, the McDonnell Douglas Flight manager. "With the ground and hover testing we've completed up to this point, we've met over 60 percent of the critical test objectives that the program set out to demonstrate, including the ability for a spacecraft to be operated like an aircraft. "The ground-based flight crew is now ready to begin flight testing, cautiously at first, then aggressively as we begin pushing the flight envelope," Conrad says. What's in the future for SSRT? Dr. Bill Gaubatz, director of SSTO programs, explains that the SSRT Program and the DC-X are the first in a series of Advanced Technology Demonstrators leading to an operational DC-l around the turn of the century. "The DC-X is proving that a spacecraft can be designed and operated with the cost effectiveness and safety of an aircraft as well as the flight characteristics of a vertical takeoff and vertical landing vehicle," says Gaubatz. The next step would be a three year program for building and flying a DC-X2 vehicle- about twice the size of the present DC-XÑto altitudes of 100 miles or more to answer engineering, manufacturing and operations questions for the final development of an orbital vehicle. The DC-X2 would be followed by a four year program to develop and flight test the orbital prototype vehicle, the DC-Y. The DC-Y would begin test flights to and from space in the summer of 2000 followed by a certification process to provide a fleet of operational DC-X by the year 2002. Proposed legislation requests $75 million in 1994 to start the competitive follow-on program for the DC-X 2; it is anticipated that this new program could be underway by the first of the year.