Candidate RLV for European Space Agency programme to be dropped from balloon
Integration and testing of the first of Italy's two unmanned space vehicles (USV) has begun in preparation for a maiden flight attempt in December.
The December flight will be the first of four balloon drops from an altitude of 65,570ft (20,000m) over Sardinia for a recoverable water landing.
The USV is an 8m-long supersonic glider with a 3.5m wingspan and mass of 1,250kg (2,750lb). The flight programme and construction of two USV vehicles is costing €28 million ($35.4 million).
The USV is Italy's candidate reusable launch vehicle (RLV) for the European Space Agency's (ESA) Future Launcher Preparatory Programme (FLPP). "We are proposing it as a test vehicle for FLPP. We are also looking for synergies with [Germany's RLV] Phoenix vehicle," said Gennaro Russo, head of space programmes for the Italian aerospace agency Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali (CIRA), speaking at last week's American Insititute of Aeronautics and Astronautics/CIRA 13th International Space Planes and Hypersonics Systems and Technologies Conference at Capua, near Naples in Italy.
The USV is a modular vehicle with eight major parts consisting of a total of 170 components. It will have 500 sensors along the vehicle, more than 300 of which are pressure taps for dynamic pressure analysis.
Other sensors include strain gauges and accelerometers. The complete vehicle will be legally handed to CIRA by contractor Carlo Gavazzi Space at the end of July, although it is being built at CIRA's facilities.
ROB COPPINGER/NAPLES
Source: Flight International