Italy's national aerospace research centre, CIRA, plans to fly its first space vehicle next year as part of atmospheric tests that are expected to lead to the first Italian reusable spacecraft launch to orbit in 2008.
The first flights will include an unpowered test article, FTB (flight testbed) 1, dropped from a high-altitude balloon to test transonic stability. But Dr Piergiovanni Renzoni, head of CIRA's modelling and design development department, warns of a lack of funds.
"The financing was part of a programme from the early 1990s...phase two needs refinancing," Renzoni says. Phase one will include drop tests of the first vehicle and sub-orbital re-entry tests of a second vehicle, FTB 2, powered by an expendable solid rocket motor, in 2005. In phase two, the same vehicle will be used for hypersonic tests in 2006 and 2007, leading to the orbital launch of FTB 3 atop a Vega launcher in 2008.
The first two test vehicles are 8m (26ft) long with a 3.56m-span wing, twin angled fins, and a dry weight of 1,250kg (2,750lb). The third vehicle will have a 50kg payload of scientific experiments.
Source: Flight International
