Further drop tests in the US Air Force Space Manoeuvre Vehicle (SMV) programme are planned, including a suborbital rocket engine boosted test flight in 2001, following the successful first drop-test of a 6.7m-long flight test vehicle on 11 August (Flight International, 19-25 August).
A fully developed operational SMV would provide the USAF with a rapidly deployable, re-usable, highly manoeuvrable single stage to orbit launch vehicle for satellite deployments. The SMV would also serve as a reusable spacecraft, with a one-year operational lifetime in orbit, providing tactical surveillance and logistics missions. The vehicle could provide a 72h landing-to-launch turnaround, says the USAF.
During the test on 11 August, the phase 1 SMV flight test article was dropped from a US Army Sikorsky Black Hawk at 9,000ft (2,740m) and completed a 90s glide flight and controlled 160kt (295km/h) landing at Holloman AFB, New Mexico. After the release of the 1,180kg (2,600lb) vehicle, a stabilising parachute was deployed - allowing the craft to prove that an SMV can fly under satellite navigation - in a simulation of the final unpowered phases of a return from space. The 90%-scale prototype, designated the X-40A technology demonstrator, was built by Boeing Phantom Works at Kirkland AFB, New Mexico.
Source: Flight International
