This press release is issued by NASDA.
Results of the First Flight Experiment of High Speed Flight Demonstration Phase II
July 1, 2003 (JST)
National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan
National Space Development Agency of Japan
The National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) and the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA), jointly with the French space agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), conducted the first flight experiment of the High Speed Flight Demonstration Phase II at the Estrange Test Site in the Kingdom of Sweden at 06:03 on July 1, 2003 (Japan Standard Time: at 13:03 July 1).
The flight was generally normal, but some part of the vehicle was broken off at its landing, due to malfunction of the recovery system. Following are the results of the flight experiment:
| (1) | The vehicle was lifted by, and separated from the balloon without any problem, and got a normal flight. It got almost the planned flight path, and flied with the speed of Mach number 0.8. The expected flight data was obtained. |
| (2) | The vehicle landed at where to be about 4 km away from the originally planned landing spot. |
| (3) | The post check-up of the vehicle after landing found that the recovery system didn't function normally and some part of the vehicle's body was broken off. |
Currently, the vehicle is under detailed examination at the landing spot.
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