X-43 CRASH CONTROL, JET OK FOR USE.Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE Edwards Air Force Base, U.S. military installation, 301,000 acres (121,805 hectares), S Calif., NE of Lancaster; est. 1933. It is one of the largest air force bases in the United States and has the world's longest runway. - NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. officials investigating the June 2 crash of the X-43A research craft have approved Dryden Flight Research Center's control room and its B-52 mothership for other missions. The airplane and the control room had been sequestered se·ques·ter v. se·ques·tered, se·ques·ter·ing, se·ques·ters v.tr. 1. To cause to withdraw into seclusion. 2. To remove or set apart; segregate. See Synonyms at isolate. 3. since the mishap to permit the investigation board to study them in detail. The cause of the crash has not yet been found. National Aeronautics and Space Administration National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), civilian agency of the U.S. federal government with the mission of conducting research and developing operational programs in the areas of space exploration, artificial satellites (see satellite, artificial), officials would not comment on an Aviation Week and Space Technology magazine report that the Pegasus booster rocket carrying the X-43A appeared to have lost parts of two fins shortly after being released by the B-52 off the Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, coast. In photos gleaned from video shot at the Dryden control room, the magazine said the right ventral ventral /ven·tral/ (ven´tral) 1. pertaining to the abdomen or to any venter. 2. directed toward or situated on the belly surface; opposite of dorsal. ven·tral adj. elevon appears to have separated from the booster at 8.2 seconds after its engine was ignited. At 8.7 seconds, the left elevon also appears to have separated from the booster. Other pieces appear to separate from the booster within the next two seconds. A photograph released by NASA shows the booster making a corkscrew-like spiral toward the ocean shortly before it was blown up by remote control. Robert W. Hughes, chairman of the investigation board, said the team at Dryden expects to join other team members already at the Orbital Sciences Corp. facility in Chandler, Ariz., by Sunday. That is where the Pegasus booster rocket used with the X-43A was built. The unmanned X-43A, first in a series of three, was lost moments after it and its Pegasus booster rocket were released from the wing of the B-52 carrier aircraft. After the Pegasus rocket deviated from its flight path, NASA officials ordered it destroyed. The wreckage of the X-43A and Pegasus fell into a Navy test range over the Pacific Ocean. Wedge-shape, only 12 feet long, and controlled by computers, the X-43 is really more jet-powered missile than airplane. It is part of a $185 million project to test in flight an experimental, extremely high-speed jet engine called a scramjet scramjet: see jet propulsion. . The X-43 is NASA's first test program dedicated to hypersonic hy·per·son·ic adj. Of, relating to, or capable of speed equal to or exceeding five times the speed of sound. hy research since the last X-15 rocket plane flight at Edwards Air Force Base in 1969. The X-15's fastest flight was Mach 6.7, or about 4,520 mph, with W.J. ``Pete'' Knight, now the Antelope Valley's state senator, at the controls. The X-43 is hoped to hit Mach 10, or about 6,600 mph. If the test had gone as planned, the winged Pegasus rocket would have boosted the X-43 to about 95,000 feet and Mach 7. |
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