Asset and Prime: Gliding Re-Entry Test Vehicles

The history of the USAF development programs for winged controlled-reentry vehicles based on a dynamic-gliding principle, ASSET (1957-1965) and PRIME (1964-1967), is recounted. The ASSET program, developed from the initial Dyna-Soar project, comprised three aerothermodynamic-structural vehicles and three aerothermoelastic vehicles, all utilizing exotic refractory metal structures partially coated with silicon-boron, zirconia-ceramic nose caps, and LV-2C Thor launchers. The three PRIME SV-5D vehicles employed elastomeric-blanket ablative heat shields and molded carbon-phenolic-composite nose caps and were launched by SLV-3 Atlas rockets. It is noted that these projects, although successful, did not lead directly to the production of lifting-body or winged reentry vehicles, but rather provided data useful in the later Shuttle development program.