Free-flight testing of the X-38 Vehicle 131R prototype Crew Return
Vehicle for the International Space Station is scheduled to resume at
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., on Friday
morning, June 29, 2001.
The X-38 is a prototype “lifeboat” for the International Space
Station, designed to carry up to seven passengers home from orbit in
an emergency. The project combines proven technologies — a shape
borrowed from a 1970s Air Force X-24A lifting body project — with
some of the most cutting-edge aerospace technology available today,
such as the most powerful electro-mechanical acuators ever used to
control a spacecraft.
The increasingly complex atmospheric flight tests of the uncrewed
X-38 are expected to continue at Dryden until 2006.
– NASA –
NOTE TO EDITORS:
Media interested in covering the X-38 flight must contact Dryden
Public Affairs at (661) 276-3449 no later than 3:30 p.m. today.
Still photos and video footage will be available from the Dryden
Public Affairs Office to support this release four hours after the
return of the B-52 mothership. Media representatives who plan to go
to the runway to photograph or videotape the B-52 / X-38 takeoff must
arrive at the Dryden Public Affairs Office by 7 a.m. for escort to
the media viewing site along the runway.
NASA TV will air the flight starting between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.
Pacific with an X-38 B-roll and will follow with live coverage of the
flight, from release to the X-38 landing. NASA Television may be
accessed via satellite GE-2, transponder 9C, at 85 degrees west
longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0
megahertz, with audio on 6.8 megahertz.
The up-linking transmissions by media are only available after
landing of the B-52 launch aircraft. Live video and mission analog
audio feed of the flight will also be available at Dryden.
Broadcasters who want to uplink must fax their Federal Communications
Commission license and provide their frequencies by 4:00 p.m. Pacific
on Thursday, June 28, 2001.
