SPACECRAFT ROLLS IN TEST FLIGHT BUT RECOVERS FOR SOFT LANDING.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - An X-38 aircraft made an unexpected roll after it was dropped by a NASA B-52, but recovered and made a soft landing Thursday during a flight test that is part of a program aimed at building a space station lifeboat.

The unmanned experimental aircraft made a 360-degree roll after it separated from the modified B-52 that had carried it to its test altitude of 36,500 feet. The computer-guided aircraft righted itself and continued the mission.

``It wasn't a perfect flight, but it wasn't a disaster either,'' said X-38 program manager John Muratore. ``We haven't lost any of our enthusiasm for the design or the program.''

An 80-foot drogue chute deployed the X-38's 7,500-square-foot parafoil, which steered the aircraft to a soft landing after an approximately 10-minute flight. The aircraft flew itself, using navigation and flight control software developed by the European Space Agency.

The unanticipated and unwanted roll was likely the result of a flight control software malfunction, officials said. Muratore said he is confident the test team will be able to resolve the issue and make a second flight test with the aircraft in late January.

Muratore described the X-38 process as ``build a little, test a little, fix a little.''

``The approach we're taking is thrashing out the problems,'' Muratore said.

The goal of the X-38 program is to design and build a spacecraft capable of flying itself back to Earth in the event of an emergency on the international space station.

The emergency spacecraft would have to carry enough oxygen for about nine hours of flight, allowing the crew to choose among several potential landing sites.

The lifeboat, called the crew-return vehicle, would deploy a large parafoil - a steerable, rectangular parachute - and guide itself to a soft landing. The parafoil being used for the X-38 program is described by National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials as the largest successful parafoil in the world.

The program is using three X-38 aircraft. The first aircraft, used in Thursday's test, made the initial test flight of the program in March 1998.

The aircraft was later reshaped to conform with the latest design of the proposed crew-return vehicle. The wedge-shape aircraft is about 24 feet long, about 80 percent of the size NASA expects for the actual space station lifeboat.

Thursday's flight was the first for the newly reshaped aircraft.

A second X-38 aircraft, featuring more electronic equipment than the original aircraft, completed its flights this year and is now in storage at the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

NASA is planning to take a third X-38 aircraft into space aboard a shuttle in 2002 for a flight test.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- ran in Business only) A modified B-52 carries the X-38 spacecraft under its wing before a test flight Thursday.

(2 -- color in AV edition only) The X-38's 7,500-square-foot parafoil helps steer the craft back to Earth after an approximately 10-minute flight.

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News