X-43A Mishap Investigation Board Convenes

ROCKET SCIENCE

An X-43A getting a safer ride in a wind tunnel during earlier testing at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center.

Edwards - June 6, 2001
NASA today convened a board to determine the cause of Saturday's loss of the first X-43A unpiloted hypersonic research aircraft.

Gathering at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Calif., the board consists of members from other agency centers, including:

Robert Hughes, chairman, Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.,

John J. Deily, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.,

Joseph J. Lackovich Jr., Kennedy Space Center, Fla.,

Victoria A. Regenie, Dryden Flight Research Center,

Luat T. Nguyen, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. The mated X-43A and its booster rocket went out of control about eight seconds after ignition of the Pegasus motor during the June 2 launch over the Pacific Ocean off the California coast.

The booster was intentionally destroyed using onboard flight-termination explosives, and fell safely in a cleared Navy sea range. There were no injuries and no damage to other aircraft or property.

This mission was the first of three flights to demonstrate an airframe-integrated, "air-breathing" propulsion system design, called a scramjet, which so far has only been tested in ground facilities, such as wind tunnels.

ROCKET SCIENCE

Pegasus Failure Destroys X-43A Test Vehicle

Dulles - June 2, 2001
The maiden flight of the experimental hypersonic aircraft X-43A failed Saturday when its booster rocket lost control five seconds after being released from its carrier plane.

Hyshot Blows Its Nose

Brisbane - May 24, 2001
The $1.25 million University of Queensland Hyshot project has passed its latest test by successfully blowing its nose. In multiple ground tests at UQ's Centre for Hypersonics in Brisbane, researchers made the rocket nose cone eject to expose its payload -- the fastest air-breathing engine ever built.

Shrinking The Planet To A Few Hours

Sydney - Jan. 6, 2000
Sydney to London. Frankfurt to Melbourne. Brisbane to Capetown. These are long flights. Not just long in distance, but necessarily involving many long hours of sitting in one place, squirming around a pokey seat trying to get some sleep while some clown behind you sings Welsh rugby songs and an 18-month-old with a brand new tooth howls her way across the entire Indian Ocean.

Scramjets Could Rocket Australia Into 21st Century

Sydney - Jan. 6, 2000
Dr. Allan Paull and his crew at the University of Queensland's Centre for Hypersonics are about to make the first test flight of their brand new toy - the world's first operational scramjet. If the thing works, the UQ scramjet will be the fastest air-breathing engine ever built, capable of pushing aircraft along at up to ten times the speed of sound.

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