Black Box for Reusable Launch Vehicles: Considerations and Potential Flight Test
Abstract
Future space transportation vehicles will involve launch to space, on-orbit activities, reentry into the earth’s atmosphere, flight to a landing site, and landing. While there will be telemetry returned to earth during all phases of flight, accidents could occur that would end a vehicle’s mission and where no telemetry data is available to help resolve the cause of the accident. The Space Shuttle Columbia accident is an example where the serendipitous recovery of a data recorder not designed to survive such an accident proved critical to isolating the cause of the accident. The FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation has begun a project to develop a black box system technical guidelines for space transportation vehicles and eventually to propose a notional design for such a system. This paper presents an overview of reentry accidents unique nature and initial considerations that are being examined. A need for additional data on the reentry breakup environment and a new instrument that may provide some first-hand data on that environment is described.
- Publication:
-
Making Safety Matter
- Pub Date:
- September 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010ESASP.680E..78D