CRV (X-38) Completes Successful Test Flight

NASA successfully tested the latest prototype of the X-38 Vehicle, 131-R, an 80-percent scale version of the Crew Return Vehicle (CRV). The CRV will ferry as many as seven astronauts to Earth in the event of an emergency aboard the space station. Currently astronauts depend on a Soyuz capsule to serve as the station lifeboat.

The X-38 prototype was dropped from under the right wing of a B-52 aircraft, and made a nine-minute cruise to a safe landing in California's Mojave Desert. The B-52 dropped the X-38 prototype at 17:20 UTC, November 2, from an altitude of 11,000 m (6,500 ft). The lifting body made an unexpected 360-degree roll after it was jettisoned. About thirty seconds into the flight, the uncrewed prototype's 24 m (80 ft) drogue parachute snapped open, leaving the CRV to slowly rotate, counterclockwise, as it recovered from the roll and fell toward the desert floor. Less than a minute later, the drogue dropped off as the parafoil unfurled. The 675-square-meter (7,500-square-foot) parafoil jerked the CRV at first, and then allowed it to settle down for the remainder of its trip to Earth. The parafoil deployed while the CRV was in a nose-up attitude, a glitch that fortunately caused no damage. By 17:29 UTC, the CRV skidded to a halt, 0.8 kilometers (one half mile) from its target. The craft landed at a slight angle, as it had pointed leftward as much as 30 degrees during its final seconds of flight. Touchdown speed was less than 64 kph (40 mph). NASA will continue flight testing into 2001. In August 2002, NASA plans to release an uncrewed X-38 from the space shuttle to fly back to Earth and land.

The first X-38, known as Vehicle 131, arrived at Dryden on June 4, 1997, aboard an Air Force C-17 transport aircraft and made its maiden flight in March of 1998. The second aircraft, V132, was delivered to Dryden in September. V132 contains the full lifting body flight control system that allows the vehicle to fly autonomously prior to parafoil deployment. The space flight vehicle, V201, is nearing completion at Johnson Space Center, Houston.  
  

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