NASA's NB-52B carrier aircraft rolls down a taxiway with the X-43A hypersonic research aircraft and its modified Pegasus® booster rocket attached to a pylon under its right wing.
As part of a combined systems test conducted by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, NASA's NB-52B carrier aircraft rolls down a taxiway at Edwards Air Force Base with the X-43A hypersonic research aircraft and its modified Pegasus® booster rocket attached to a pylon under its right wing. The taxi test was one of the last major milestones in the Hyper-X research program before the first X-43A flight. The X-43A flights will be the first actual flight tests of an aircraft powered by a revolutionary supersonic-combustion ramjet ("scramjet") engine capable of operating at hypersonic speeds (above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound). The 12-foot, unpiloted research vehicle was developed and built by MicroCraft Inc., Tullahoma, Tenn., under NASA contract. The booster was built by Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va. After being air-launched from NASA's venerable NB-52 mothership, the booster will accelerate the X-43A to test speed and altitude. The X-43A will then separate from the rocket and fly a pre-programmed trajectory, conducting aerodynamic and propulsion experiments until it descends into the Pacific Ocean. Three research flights are planned, two at Mach 7 and one at Mach 10.
- Date
- 2001-03-15
- Photographer / author
- NASA/Tom Tschida
- Collection
- AFRC
- Archive
- NASA Image and Video Library
- Type
- photograph
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Reason: a NASA work: not copyrighted in the United States.
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Credit line
"NASA's NB-52B carrier aircraft rolls down a taxiway with the X-43A hypersonic research aircraft and its modified Pegasus® booster rocket attached to a pylon under its right wing." (2001-03-15). NASA/AFRC/NASA/Tom Tschida. Public domain. https://images.nasa.gov/details/EC01-0079-4Need photos for a whole script? Add Find Any Photo to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 25412.
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