X-38 - Definition

NASA X-38
Description
Role	Crew Return Vehicle
Crew	0
First Flight	March 12, 1998 (dropped by B-52)
V131 & V132 Aeroshell Manufacturer	Scaled Composites, Inc., Mojave, CA
V201 Aeroshell Manufacturer & V131, V132, V131R & V201 Systems Integration	NASA, JSC, Houston, TX
Dimensions
Length	28 ft 6 in	8.7 m
Wingspan	14 ft 6 in	4.4 m
Height	ft in	m
Wing area	ft²	m²
Weights
Empty	16,000 lb	7260 kg
Performance
Maximum speed	500 mph	800 km/h
Avionics
Avionics

The X-38 was a technology demonstrator for the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. It was an unpiloted lifting body designed at 80 percent of the size of a CRV. (Two later versions were planned at 100 percent of the CRV size.) It was patterned after a lifting-body shape first employed in the Air Force-NASA X-24 lifting-body project in the early to mid-1970s.

In tests it was dropped by a B-52 from altitudes of up to 45,000 ft (13,700 m), gliding at near transonic speeds before deploying a drogue parachute to slow it to 60 mph (95 km/h). Its descent continued under a 7,500 ft² (700 m²) parafoil wing, the largest ever made.

Flight control was mostly autonomous, backed up by a ground-based pilot.

The X-38 project was cancelled on April 29, 2002 due to budget concerns.

See Also

• X-plane

External link

• NASA Dryden X-38 Photo Collection (http://www.dfrc.nasa.gov/gallery/Photo/X-38/index.html)

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