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The next big thing in rocket power
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The ATK-ALV X-1 rocket carrying two hypersonics experiments will be launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on the Eastern Shore. (Jacob Owen | NASA Wallops Flight Facility)

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By Diane Tennant
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 20, 2008
A 5-in-1 experiment on hypersonic flight and rocket design is scheduled to launch early Friday from Wallops Island, carrying NASA and Navy payloads.

The 10-minute flight, expected to reach 200 nautical miles in height, will end in the Atlantic Ocean. Information recorded during flight will last much longer, contributing to the development of jet-powered vehicles that can fly up to seven or eight times the speed of sound, or about 5,280 mph.

At the moment, flight at such speeds is limited to rocket-powered vehicles, such as the space shuttle. Jet engines, which take in air, are much slower. The Air Force's SR-71 Blackbird flew at Mach 3.2 ( 3.2 times the speed of sound), while the commercial Concorde cruised at around Mach 2. Sound travels at different speeds depending on altitude, temperature and humidity.

NASA's latest experiments follow the successful tests in 2004 of the unmanned X-43A scramjet, which was dropped from airplanes and boosted by rockets before igniting its engines. On its third and final test, it flew for a few seconds at Mach 9.6, nearly two miles a second.

That flight ended NASA's Hyper-X Program, which was conducted jointly by two of its centers, including Langley Research Center in Hampton. Since then, the military has led hypersonic studies, mostly for missiles. But Langley continues with hypersonic work, said James Pittman, head of the program.

"Our primary purpose is to build vehicles eventually where you can launch payloads to space using an air-breathing propulsion system," he said. "If you can do that, your vehicles can be much smaller, they can be more flexible."

The key is the air-breathing engine, which makes the vehicle lighter and more maneuverable.

"We proved we can do it," Pitt-man said, referring to the X-43A. "But it was a small vehicle and it only flew for a few seconds. To make the leap from that to a routine operational capacity, you're thinking 10 to 20 to 30 years."

Friday's launch will carry experiments in the basic physics of hypersonic flight, which is anything over Mach 5. The Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition experiment, or HYBOLT, will test temperature and pressure.

HYBOLT is shaped like a flat-bladed screwdriver, with one side smooth and the other roughened to simulate conditions that a space shuttle might encounter - missing heat tiles, for example. It carries hundreds of sensors, said chief engineer Mark Croom, that can measure pressure and temperatures up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit.

Of particular importance at such high speeds is handling the heat generated by friction in the boundary layer - the thin layer of air that touches the vehicle.

"When it first attaches itself to the vehicle, it's nice and smooth," Pittman said. "As the air continues to wash down the side of any vehicle, it starts to develop disturbances, like mini-tornadoes. As they build up, they get hotter and hotter."

Understanding when and where this happens is vital in designing spacecraft that will not burn up either on liftoff or during re-entry. The space shuttles, when they return to Earth from space, enter the atmosphere at Mach 25.

Once HYBOLT takes its readings, it will detach from the rocket to expose SOAREX, or Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments. Two probes in this section will test a new design for entering an atmosphere from space, either on Earth or another planet. The blunt-nosed cylinder, mounted on a ring, may lead to designs where larger payloads, including human crews, can be delivered more efficiently.

It has been compared to a badminton birdie that can right itself. Slots help with drag and stability.

Also on SOAREX is an experiment from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory that will test an automatic identification system receiver and transmitter intended to help with ocean recovery. The foam-filled sphere will float and transmit its GPS coordinates. It is the only part of the rocket and payload that will be retrieved after the flight.

The experiments will ride on the ALV X-1 launch vehicle, which is itself a new design from Alliant Techsystems. The two-stage rocket is more than 53 feet tall. It uses established motors but comes from a company that has not before been a launch provider, said Mary Beth Wusk, mission integration manager.

The launch will be no earlier than 5:10 a.m. Friday. The launch window extends through Aug. 25, in case of delays.

Diane Tennant, (757) 446-2478, diane.tennant@pilotonline.com