DRYDEN GEARING UP FOR EARTH LANDINGS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is expected to get work developing a launch-abort system, a parachute landing system and other components of America's next- generation manned spacecraft, the center director said.

Edwards Air Force Base has also been identified as the primary landing spot for the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle, which will land by parachute like 1960s and 1970s space capsules - but on land, instead of in the ocean.

``We've been a proven partner in the past,'' Dryden director Kevin Petersen said Tuesday. ``We expect that to happen in the future too.''

The Crew Exploration Vehicle - competing versions of which are being designed by Boeing and a Northrop Grumman-Lockheed Martin team - is to replace the space shuttle for carrying Americans into space and will later be part of a system to return man to the moon.

The present concept calls for the spacecraft to have the conical shape of the Apollo capsules that went to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, but to be large enough to carry four to six people instead of three.

The capsule is expected to be launched by a rocket developed from the space shuttle's solid booster motors. For moon flights, the crew capsule would be carried into orbit by one rocket, and a second rocket would launch the propulsion unit that would take it on to the moon; the two segments would link up in orbit.

Launching separately means the United States would not have to build a mammoth new rocket like the 300-foot-tall Saturn V that lifted the Apollo spacecraft.

The new spacecraft is expected to fly beginning in about 2012 or 2014, and return astronauts to the moon by the end of that decade.

``They'll spend more time on the moon, actually set up an outpost there and learn to live on the moon,'' Petersen said.

Speaking at an Antelope Valley Board of Trade luncheon, Petersen said Dryden expects to design the new craft's launch-abort system, which would allow it to set down safely if a problem occurs during launch. Three or four launches using a dummy spacecraft and the abort system are expected to be made out of White Sands, New Mexico.

Dryden also is expected to do tests of the parachute system that will land the craft. The craft is expected to be equipped with inflatable cushions or retro rockets to soften its landing on Edwards' Rogers Dry Lake, Petersen said.

``We expect to be quite heavily involved with the landing and recovery of the new space vehicle,'' Petersen said.

Dryden may also play a role in testing heat shields, communication and navigation systems and other components, Petersen said.

As in past research, Dryden will likely do work in partnerships with aerospace companies, universities, the Air Force or other government agencies.

Besides testing the X-15 rocket planes and other aircraft, Dryden in the 1960s was home to a jet-powered lunar-lander trainer used by Neil Armstrong and other astronauts to practice for moon landings; hosted landing tests for the space shuttle; and installed shuttle landing gear in the belly of a jetliner to test how its tires would bear the weight.

``We've been involved in human space flight for decades, for over four decades,'' Petersen said.

Charles F. Bostwick, [phone]

chuck.bostwick(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Kevin Petersen

Announcing future plans

(2) NASA Dryden Director Kevin Petersen expects to be involved in launch-abort and landing systems.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer