Tim Furniss/LONDON
NASA's X-38 crew-emergency-return vehicle (CERV) for the International Space Station (ISS) will have its first orbital and re-entry flight test in 2001.
The vehicle prototype is undergoing atmospheric flight tests from a NASA Boeing B-52 operating from Edwards AFB, California, (Flight International, 18-24 June). Glide flights from altitudes of up to 40,000ft (12,200m) are planned by 1999. Another unmanned X-38 prototype, equipped with a heatshield, will be carried aboard the Space Shuttle STS113 Columbia in February 2001. It will be deployed in orbit to perform a re-entry and automatic-landing demonstration flight.
Berthed at the ISS, the operational X-38 CERV will be able to return six or seven crew to Earth in an emergency. The interim ISS/CERV role will be performed by two Russian Soyuz TM spacecraft.
The European Space Agency's (ESA) role in the X-38 CERV programme and also in its own Ariane 5-launched Crew Transfer Vehicle (CTV) proposal had been threatened by the French Government's withdrawal of financial backing, but Germany and Italy have since assumed leading roles in work on the project.
A new NASA-German agreement signed in November will result in Germany providing components, including the nosecone for the X-38 spaceflight demonstration vehicle. Italy's involvement may be confirmed later.
Attempting to wrestle back the initiative, French President Jacques Chirac says that he wants France to restore the 39% funding to ESA for the CERV/CTV until flight tests have confirmed its potential as the ISS lifeboat.
Source: Flight International
