(Due to this mission being first mission with extensive planning, this mission plan contains some extra data to be resued in further missions)
GENERAL MISSION OBJECTIVES
- Test of the new X-30 Venture vehicle internal systems, and flight dynamics
- Measuring heat levels during atmospheric re-entry, tests of new thermal shielding (X-Plane thermal heating simulation)
- Test XNAV system and determine accuracy of orbital calculations
- Gather telemetry from the flight (synchronized with time, at predicted precision of 20 values per second during reentry and launch, and 1 value per second during main orbitting stage)
- Perform orbital manuevers between three orbits specified below (not including pre-reentry orbit)
- Test out concepts of engineer team working
EXPECTED MISSION SEQUENCE
All times in GMT+2 or relative to orbit insertion. Format: day-hour:minute
00-19:00 -60 min: Rollout to takeoff lane, final refueling and system checks, run PRE-LAUNCH checklist
00-20:30 -30 min: Horizontal launch
00-21:00 0 min: First orbital insertion at height of 135km. Begin transfer to Orbit 1 (estimated 45 min), run POST-LAUNCH checklists
00-21:45 45 min: Transfer to Orbit 1 complete. Perform POST-INSERTION checklist
00-22:00 60 min: synchronization point
01-11:10 780 min: Transfer to Orbit 2 via apogee burn.
01-11:30 800 min: Stabilize spacecraft on Orbit 2
01-19:30 1280 min: Burn at perigee, begin transfer to pre-reentry orbit
01-20:20 1330 min: Run PRE-REENTRY checklist
01-20:30 1340 min: Begin atmospheric reentry
01-21:00 1370 min: Landing at Edwards AFB
PRIMARY ORBIT PARAMETERS
Orbit 1 (post-insertion orbit):
Eccentricity: ~0.002
Inclination: 57.0 ± 0.1 deg
Semimajor axis: 6970 ± 10 km
Apogee: 610 ± 10km
Perigee: 580 ± 10km
Expected height after orbit insertion: 600km
Orbital period: 92.8 min
Rotations: 8 (12.3 hours)
Expected error between predicted trajectory and resulting trajectory less than ±500m
Orbit 2 (highly eccentric orbit):
Eccentricity: 0.14
Semimajor axis: 8120 km
Apogee: 2890 ± 10km
Perigee: 610km
Orbital period: 121.3 min
Rotations: 4 (8.1 hours)
Highly eccentric orbit.
TRANSFER ORBITS
No special transfer orbits are required.
Transfer from Orbit 1 to Orbit 2 by burn at apogee.
Insertion trajectory to 600km.
Pre-reentry orbit 131km.
TARGET SPACECRAFT PARAMETERS
Spacecraft: X-30 Venture
Configuration: Orbital
Payload: Dummy weight payload
Payload weight: 27,200 kg (60,000 lb)
Payload configuration: Default
Jet fuel load: 95,250 kg (210,000 lb)
Rocket fuel load: 63,500 kg (140,000 lb)
MISSION ABORT MODES
RLTS (Return to launch site)
Return to launch site abort mode is declared if an emergency occurs before the vehicle has exceeded 120,000ft in altitude and mach 16 in speed.
Usually KEDW landing site is selected, but an alternative landing site might be picked in case of increasing failure of the spacecraft.
SOA (Suborbital abort)
Suborbital abort is declared if the damage vehicle has sustained prevents it from reaching stable orbit, but scramjet systems are still functioning for suborbital flight.
It is usually declared before spacecraft reaches altitude of 220,000ft (after that altitude ATO is best option).
ATO (Abort to orbit)
Abort to orbit is declared if vehicle is not able to reach target orbit, but it still has enough velocity or OMS thrust to reach a stable lower orbit
Depending on seriousness of damages mission can be resumed, or the vehicle will be requested to deorbit during one or next rotation
TAL (Transatlantic landing)
Transatlantic landing is declared when the vehicle has sustained heavy damage preventing it from using ATO abort mode, but has enough energy to use ballistic trajectory approach to reach one of TAL sites
Usually this is declared if there is both rocket engine and scramjet functionality lost.
OCL (Ocean landing)
Ocean landing is declared in case of extreme emergency, if it is not possible to fall back to SOA abort mode.
It should be used only in extreme cases, as it results in very heavy damage to spacecraft.
USED SITES LIST
Launch site: KEDW (Edwards Air Force Base, California, United States)
Expected landing site: KEDW (Edwards Air Force Base, California, United States)
Abort sites for RLTS
KEDW (Edwards Air Force Base, California, United States)
CYQX (Gander International Airport, Gander, Newfoundland, Canada)
KROW (White Sands Missile Range, White Sands, New Mexico, United States)
KLNK (Lincoln Airport, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States)
KDOV (Dover Air Force Base, Dover, Delaware, United States)
CYYC (Calgary International Airport, Calgary, Alberta, Canada)
Abort sites for TAL
EINN (Shannon International Airport, Ireland)
EGVA (RAF Fairford, United Kingdom)
EDDK (Koln Bonn Airport, Germany)
LTAE (Ankara, Turkey)
Abort sites for SOA
EGEC (Campbeltown Airport, Scotland)
LPLA (Lajes, Portugal)
LPBJ (Beja, Portugal)
GCLP (Gran Canaria Airport, Spain)
OERK (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia)
FJDG (Diego Garcia, British Indian Ocean Territory)
PHNL (Hickam AFB, Honolulu, Hawaii)
YAMB (Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley, near Brisbane, Australia)
YPDN (Royal Australian Air Force Base Darwin, Darwin, Australia)
KSWF (Stewart International Airport, Newburgh, New York, United States)
KRME (Griffiss International Airport, Rome, NY, United States)
KACY (Atlantic City International Airport, Pomona,NJ, United States)
Abort sites unused in the mission
GBYD (Yundum International Airport, Banjul, Gambia)
KBGR (Bangor International Airport, Bangor, Maine, United States)
KILM (Wilmington International Airport, Wilmington, North Carolina, United States)
KMCO (Orlando International Airport, Orlando, Florida, United States)
KABE (Lehigh Valley International Airport, Allentown, PA, United States)