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| Scaled Composites X-38
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|
| Description
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| Role | Crew Return Vehicle
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| Crew | 0
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| First Flight | March 12, 1998
(dropped by B-52)
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| Manufacturer | Scaled Composites, Inc., Mojave, CA
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| Dimensions
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| Length | 28 ft 6 in | 8.7 m
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| Wingspan | 14 ft 6 in | 4.4 m
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| Height | ft in | m
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| Wing area | ft² | m²
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| Weights
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| Empty | 16,000 lb | 7260 kg
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| Performance
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| Maximum speed | 500 mph | 800 km/h
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| Avionics
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| Avionics |
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The X-38 was an unpiloted lifting body designed at 80 percent of the size of a projected emergency Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station, (two later versions were planned at 100 percent of the CRV size). It was patterned after a lifting-body shape first employed in the Air Force-NASA X-24 lifting-body project in the early to mid-1970s.
In tests it was dropped by a B-52 from altitudes of up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m), gliding at near transonic speeds before deploying a drogue parachute to slow it to 60 mph (95 km/h). Its descent continued under a 7,500 ft² (700 m²) parafoil wing, the largest ever made.
Flight control was mostly autonomous, backed up by a ground-based pilot.
The X-38 project was cancelled on April 29, 2002 due to budget concerns.
See Also
External link
This article or image contains materials that originally came from a NASA website. All NASA information is in the public domain, with the exception of the usage-restricted NASA logo. See here (http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html#Guidelines) for more information.
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