NASA today awarded contracts under the Cycle 2 Space
\nLaunch Initiative (SLI) solicitation to two companies for
\nflight demonstrator technologies.
\n
\nThe awards for flight demonstrators are required at this
\nstage to mature technologies needed to support full-scale
\ndevelopment design of a future competitively selected
\nOrbital Space Plane under the restructured SLI effort.<\/p>\n
\nThe Boeing Company-Phantom Works Division, Seal Beach,
\nCalif., was awarded approximately $301 million (including
\noptions through 2006) to continue the development of the X-37
\nflight demonstrator. This contract includes a progressive
\nseries of approach and landing tests and a space
\ntransportation research orbital vehicle. The atmospheric
\ntests are scheduled for mid-2004 and the orbital flight is
\nscheduled for mid-2006.<\/p>\n
\nThe Lockheed Martin Corporation, Denver, Colo., was awarded a
\ncontract valued up to approximately $53 million (including
\noptions through 2006) to develop a reusable launch pad abort
\ndemonstrator. The contract includes a full-scale reusable
\nsystem that will provide the capability to test technologies
\nin a launch pad abort situation.<\/p>\n
\nThe solicitation was issued in January, as part of the second
\ngeneration SLI, and requested proposals for a broad range of
\nresearch and development activities for technology risk
\nreduction activities.<\/p>\n
\n“The work that will result from these contracts is an
\nimportant investment for NASA and the U.S.,” said Dr. Jerry
\nCreedon, Associate Administrator, NASA’s Office of Aerospace
\nTechnology. “This is a crucial step that will greatly enhance
\nour understanding of key technologies for a new flight
\nsystem.”<\/p>\n
\nThe Boeing developed X-37 vehicles will be used as flight
\ndemonstrator test beds. These technology demonstrators will
\ntest key embedded technologies and flight experiments in
\nrelevant environments of ascent, on-orbit, and descent and
\nlanding phases of flight. An initial list of experiments and
\ntechnologies to be tested includes: advanced guidance,
\nnavigation and control, thermal protection systems, high
\ntemperature structures, conformal reusable insulation, high-
\ntemperature seals, and tile leading edges. <\/p>\n
\nThe Lockheed-Martin launch pad abort demonstrator will be
\nused as a test-bed to demonstrate crew escape technologies
\nand to validate analytical models necessary for future crew
\nescape systems. The launch pad abort demonstrator test bed
\nwill use fully instrumented mannequins to provide data on
\ncrew environments during the test and check out of crew
\nescape propulsion systems, parachute deployment, vehicle
\norientation, landing techniques, and external aeroshell
\nconfigurations. This vehicle may be upgraded to test
\nadditional maturing launch pad abort technologies to improve
\ncrew safety and survivability.<\/p>\n
\nFlight demonstrators provide the opportunity to test key
\ntechnologies in their actual working environment. “Many
\ntests can be conducted using ground facilities, but there are
\nkey technologies that must be tested in flight,” said Dennis
\nSmith, NASA’s manager for the SLI program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NASA today awarded contracts under the Cycle 2 Space Launch Initiative (SLI) solicitation to two companies for flight demonstrator technologies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":612598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-NASA"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/612598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}