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X-43A captive carry flight rescheduled NASA-DFRC NEWS RELEASE Posted: September 22, 2004 The captive carry flight of NASA's X-43A hypersonic research aircraft originally scheduled earlier this month has been reset for Sept. 27. Should weather or other concerns force a postponement, the captive carry mission could be flown the following day, Sept. 28. This captive carry flight is a "dress rehearsal" for the planned free flight later this fall that is targeted to reach a speed of up to Mach 10, or about 7,000 mph. The captive flight duplicates all operational functions of the planned Mach 10 flight and serves as a training exercise for staff, except that the X-43A and its modified Pegasus booster are not released from the launch aircraft and their engines are not ignited. Two leaky hydraulic packs on the B-52B mothership that forced the captive carry mission to be aborted before takeoff on two successive days in early September have been replaced. The X-43A is powered by a revolutionary supersonic-combustion ramjet - or "scramjet" - engine. If successful, the Mach 10 flight will break all speed records for an aircraft powered by an air-breathing engine. It is part of the Hyper-X hypersonic research program led by NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, and operated jointly by NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., and Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. The program aims to demonstrate air-breathing engine technologies that promise to increase payload capacity - or reduce vehicle size for the same payload - for future hypersonic aircraft and reusable space launch vehicles. |
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Expedition 9 commander Gennedy Padalka and flight engineer Mike Fincke talk about life aboard the International Space Station during an in-flight educational event with students at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. (19min 00sec file)
The International Space Station's Expedition 9 crew hold an educational talk with students and members of the National Guard Bureau in Charleston, West Virginia. (19min 53sec file)
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe tours the hurricane damage at Kennedy Space Center. (5min 50sec file)
The Stafford-Covey Return to Flight Task Group's co-chairmen, former astronauts Tom Stafford and Dick Covey, hold a news conference Thursday to update reporters on NASA's efforts to prepare the next space shuttle mission. (47min 01sec file)