X-40A completes fourth NASA drop test
Posted: Mon, May 7, 2001, 9:36 AM ET (1336 GMT)
The X-40A experimental vehicle completed the fourth in a series of NASA-run drop tests Saturday. The vehicle was dropped from a helicopter 4,625 meters above Edwards Air Force Base, California at 10:14 am EDT (1414 GMT) Saturday, landing safely on the lakebed below two minutes later. The X-40A performed a series of side-to-side maneuvers during the flight. The test was the fourth of up to seven that NASA has planned to test the flight characteristics of the vehicle, an 85-percent scale model of the X-37 prototype crew return vehicle. The X-40A was built by Boeing for the Air Force, which originally intended the vehicle to be a scale model of a proposed Space Maneuver Vehicle. The Air Force, which conducted one drop test of the X-40A in 1998, is loaning the vehicle to NASA for the current series of flights.
The X-40A experimental vehicle completed the fourth in a series of NASA-run drop tests Saturday. The vehicle was dropped from a helicopter 4,625 meters above Edwards Air Force Base, California at 10:14 am EDT (1414 GMT) Saturday, landing safely on the lakebed below two minutes later. The X-40A performed a series of side-to-side maneuvers during the flight. The test was the fourth of up to seven that NASA has planned to test the flight characteristics of the vehicle, an 85-percent scale model of the X-37 prototype crew return vehicle. The X-40A was built by Boeing for the Air Force, which originally intended the vehicle to be a scale model of a proposed Space Maneuver Vehicle. The Air Force, which conducted one drop test of the X-40A in 1998, is loaning the vehicle to NASA for the current series of flights.
Related Links:
| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Friday, August 14
Intuitive Machines Reports Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results; Continues Record Backlog Expansion With Quarter-end Backlog of $1.8 Billion
GlobeNewswire — 6:07 am ET (1007 GMT) Intuitive Machines Lunar Communication Satellite Launch Plans Change
Aviation Week — 6:06 am ET (1006 GMT) Firefly Aerospace Awarded Contract to Design Elytra Deorbit System for Defense Innovation Unit
Firefly Aerospace — 6:05 am ET (1005 GMT) Cruise control: the team guiding Hera to its asteroid
ESA — 6:05 am ET (1005 GMT) SpaceX plans another multimillion-dollar expansion in Bastrop
Austin (TX) American-Statesman — 6:03 am ET (1003 GMT) |
