Wed, Feb 18, 2004
Rudder Actuator Blamed
The flight of NASA's X-43A has been postponed, due to an
incident with the rudder actuator on the booster. On Feb 11, during
setup at Orbital Sciences Corporation for testing of the rudder and
its actuator, an anomaly caused the actuator to go hard over and
hit its mechanical stop, exceeding the torque to which the units
were qualified.
Although the actuator may still function normally, it will have
to be replaced. A joint government/contractor incident
investigation is under way to determine the cause and corrective
actions.
Before this incident, the program was considering a delay of the
flight to late March to retune the booster autopilot, to optimize
its performance based on the latest test data. With the requirement
for a replacement actuator, the two activities will now be done in
parallel. Planning is now focused on a late-March to early-April
flight.
The stack, consisting of the X-43A and its modified Pegasus
booster, will be air-launched by NASA's B-52 carrier aircraft at
40,000 feet altitude. The booster will accelerate the experimental
vehicle to Mach 7 at approximately 95,000 feet altitude. At booster
burnout, the X-43 will separate and fly under its own power on a
preprogrammed path. The flight will take place over a restricted
Navy Pacific Ocean test range off the coast of Southern
California.
NASA admits the X-43A is a high-risk, high-payoff flight
research program. Designed to fly at seven and 10 times the speed
of sound, and use scramjet engines instead of traditional rocket
power, the agency claims the small, 12-foot-long X-43A could
represent "a major leap forward toward the goal of providing
faster, more reliable and less expensive access to space."
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