Project Fire Press Kit

8/8/2019 Project Fire Press Kit

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f~~ ---.NE WS RELEASENATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION400 MARYLAND AVENUE, SW, WASHINGTON, D. C. 20546TELEPHONES: WORTH 2-4155 -------- WORTH3-6925FOR RELEASE: WEDNESDAY AMisApril 1, 1964

RELEASE NO: o4-69

NASA SCHEDULES PROJECT FIRE LAUNCH

The National Aeronautics and Space Administrationwill launch from Cape Kennedy, Fla., no earlier than April6 a heavily-instrumented 200-pound Project FIRE spacecraft


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These measurements will form guideposts for the correctinterpretation of research results obtained in laboratoryfacilities and in flight experiments at lower speeds.

The reentry spacecraft to be flown in Project FIRE isa blunt-faced vehicle with a conical afterbody. It is simi-lar to the shapes of manned spacecraft for which flight dataat lower orbital reentry speeds (about 17,500 mph) havebeen gathered. In addition, large amounts of laboratorydata has been collected on similar shapes.

Launch vehicle for Project FIRE will be an Atlas-D. Avelocity package using the solid propellant Antares II rock-et motor (also used as the third stage of the Scout launchvehicle) adds the speed needed to drive the reentry pay-load back into the atmosphere at 25,000 mph. The velocitypackage will have a guidance system similar to that usedin Scout.


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-3-Flight time will be just over 32 minutes including

21-minute coast period during which the spacecraft will beoriented to the correct entry attitude. Firing of theAntares II motor and payload separation begin about 26 min-utes after liftoff.

Instruments on the spacecraft, on Ascension Island, andship and airborne radar and telemetry receiving stationswill gather data on the experiment.

Launch windows for Project FIRE are chosen to providetotal darkness at 400,000 feet in the reentry area. OnApril 7, the launch window is between 3:33 and 9:03 p.m. EST.About mid-April, the window begins to diminsh quite rapidly,closing entirely on April 21. Clear weather in the reentryarea is essential for optical observations.

Types of Reentry Heating


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-4-4At the speed Project FIRE will attain, the termperature

of the gases in the shock wave area Just ahead of the bluntreentry body will approach 20,0000F. This temperature isan indication of the energy which is transferred from thespeeding vehicle into the surrounding air. The energy trans-ferred is great enough to break diatonic gas molecules intoindividual atoms and to ionize many atoms.

Several chemical and physical changes then take placein the hot gas area Just ahead of the reentering vehicle.Atoms may combine with atoms of a different element insteadof their original diatonic twins. New gas components, notoriginally present, may be generated, and with them newphysical characteristics. Project FIRE is intended to yielda important new knowledge in the area of hot gas chemistry.


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-5-At higher speeds, radiative heating becomes more

important. Unlike convective heating, radiative heatingdoes not depend on direct contact, but is analogous to theheat emitted from the burner of an electric stove whichcan be felt several feet away. Project FIRE is designed tofind out the relative importance of radiative heating at25,000 mph.

Project FIRE onboard experiments will include directmeasurements of radiation from the hot gas cap by means ofspecially developed radiometers. Heating will be measuredby more than 250 thermocouples.

The radiometers represent a pioneering technique thatis being used in flight for the first time. It requires aunique instrumentation arrangement that has been developedfrom extensive ground tests,


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-6-Project FIRE Reentry Package

The instrumented reentry package for Project FIRE isa blunt-faced vehicle with a conical afterbody, 26 inchesin diameter across the face and 21 inches long. It weighs200 pounds. The adapter which supports the reentry packageand connects it to the Antares rocket motor weighs an addi-tional 50 pounds.

The blunt end of the reentry package consists of threeberyllium calorimeters (devices for measuring absorbedheat) interleaved with three phenolic asbestos ablativeheat protection layers, The first, third and fifth layersare beryllium calorimeters instrumented with thermocouplesto provide temperature readings from which the total heatingrates will be determined. The second, fourth and sixth lay-ers are hatt shields. All but the last two layers will beburned away or jettisoned during the 45-second flight through


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-7-tive heat protection layers will be Jettisoned at programmedtimes to expose a fresh calorimeter to the hot gas region.

Within the reentry package are three radiometers, Twoare single devices to measure total radiant energy and thethird is a combination total and spectral radiometer. Theywill furnish measurements of reentry heating due to radia-tion from the hot gases.

Radiant energy will be admitted to the instrumentsthrough fused quartz windows. One is located at the centerof the forward face, in what scientists call the stagnationregion; the second near the corner of the front face; andthe third on the conical afterbody.

The combination total and spectral radiometer is designedto measure the radiant energy in such a way that the experi-menters can gather information on the chemical composition


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thermocouples so that the complete spacecraft will in itselfope7.dte as a calorimeter. All told, there will be 258thermocouples in the Project FIRE reentry package.

The conical afterbody is built of sheet aluminum andfiberglas, covered with a phenolic asbestos laminate. Inaddition to the primary Project FIRE instruments it con-tains: (1) data acquisition and processing electronics;(2) two solid-state telemetry transmitters; (3) a delayeddata system which tape records research measurements duringthe radio blackout period for transmission 45 seconds later;(4) a C-band beacon for radar tracking; (5) an attitudesensing system, consisting of three rate gyros and fivelinear accelerometers; (6) perssure sensors; (7) n elec-tronic device attached to the realtime telemetry transmit-ter to gather information on signal attenuation caused bythe plasma sheath; (8) a time code generator to indicate


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-9-Velocit Package

The Project FIRE velocity package is designed to addsufficient thrust to bring the reentry payload to a speedof 25,000 miles per hour. It consists of an Antares IIsolid propellant motor which also is used as the thirdstage of the Scout launch vehicle. Its cylindrical filament-wound case is 30 inches in diameter. Antares TI burns forabout 30 seconds and produces 24,000 pounds of thrust ataltitude. When assembled with the reentry package and adap-ter, it forms a structure 12 feet long.

At launch, the velocity package is connected totheAtlas launch vehicle by an adapter section 33 inches high.Around the base of the Antares there is a shell containingthe subsystem devices required for guidance and control,telemetry, ignition and destruction. The upper portion ofthe velocity package is protected during the launch phase


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Launch VehicleThe Atlas D booster stage scheduled to launch the

Project FIRE experiment is the Model LV-3A "thick-skin"version used in the Ranger program. It is approximately66 Teet high topped by an adapter 33 inches tall to supportthe velocity package. It is 10 feet in diameter at thetank section, and weighs about 260,000 pounds at launch,carrying a fullJbad of propellants. Its three main engines--two boosters, one sustainer--generate more than 360,000pounds of thrust at sea level, burning kerosene-type fuelwith liquid oxygen as oxidizer.

The Atlas D will carry a General Electric radio com-mand guidance system and a standard Atlas D pitch attitudecommand programer.

At sustainer engine cut-off (SECO), the launch vehicle


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will obtain telemetry from the velocity package and thereentry package. At Ascension Island in the reentry area, 4reentry package and velocity package telemetry will berecorded. To collect telemetered data from the reentrypackage alone, aircraft and ship-borne receiving equipmentwill be deployed in the reentry area. All stations exceptthe aircraft will provide either radar or optical trackingor both.

In addition to the radiation measurements to be obtainedin flight, Project FIRE will make the first vse of a spe-cially designed instrument known as the NASA tracking tele-spectrograph, which has been mounted on Ascension Island.

The telespectrograph combines the light-gathering powerof a 36-inch diameter telescope with a conventional slitlessspectrograph to obtain a spectrographic record of the re-entry as it takes place some 85-160 miles from Ascension.


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The new instrument, weighing more than 22 tons, iscapable of extreme pointing accuracy, rapid tracking abilityand very high resolution of the optical information it willgather. It was developed under sponsorship of Langley,

Mission DescriptionProject FIRE will follow a ballistic flight path which

will require just over 32 minutes from liftoff to payloadsplash. Major events are clustered at the beginning andnear the end of the flight separated by a long period ofcoasting flight which will last about 21 minutes.

After liftoff, the Atlas launch vehicle will followits standard operating sequence, which includes booster en-gine cutoff (BECO); booster jettison; and sustainer enginecutoff (SECO).


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Coasting flight begins with the velocity package undercontrol of an inertially referenced guidance and stabiliza-tion system. Six cold gas attitude control jets use nitro-gen stored at 3,000 psi in four spherical tanks.

The velocity package will reach an apogee of approxi-mately 500 statute miles about 2,500 miles downrange after15 minutes 41 seconds of flight.

At the end of the 21 minute coast period, the reentrypackage is accelerated to the correct speed for the beginningof reentry.

These events are as follows:1. Three spin rocket mctors are ignited by a timer in

the velocity package shell after 26 minutes and 14 secondsof flight. They impart a spinning motion to stabilize theflight of the velocity package.


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4. The Antares II burns for 30 seconds, with separa-tion scheduled after 27 minutes and 20 seconds of flight.At that point a pyrotechnic device releases a coil springwhich expands to separate the reentry package from the adap-ter that remains attached to the Antares II. The reentrypackage moves away from the spent rocket case and adapterat six feet per second and after a six-second delay a smallrocket fastened to the adapter is fired to insure positiveseparation.

At that time, the reentry package should be on a flightpath inclined 15 degrees below horizontal, moving at 25,000miles per hour on a southeasterly heading about 100 milesdue west of Ascension Island. Splash is calculated to occurafter 32 minutes and 17 seconds of flight at a point approxi-mately 5,200 statute miles downrange.


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Instruments carried in the 63-pound payload will measuredensity, temperature, pressure, and wind conditions up to75 miles. The data will be telemetered to Ascension Islandso NASA scientists can determine the atmospheric conditionsthrough which the Project FIRE reentry package flew.

The University of Michigan, under NASA contract,designedthe Nike Apache payload for the Ascension Island tests.The New Mexico State University is responsible for trackingthe payload.

The Project FIRE TeamProject FIRE is a research investigatUon of NASA's

Office of Advanced Research and Technology headed byDr. Raymond L. Bispliinghoff. Within OART Project FIRE is aresponsibility of the Space Vehicles Division, headed


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Assistant Manager; Richard C. Dineldein, in charge of theMission Technical Office; I. G. Recant, head of the Support-ing Programs Office; H. F. Weber, responsible for SpacecraftSystems; T. N. Bartron, responsible for the Velocity Package;D. H. Ward, in charge of Operations; and J. E. Canady, headof the Space Vehicles Office. J. H. Daniel of Langley hasresponsibility for Tracking and Data Acquisition.

The launch vehicle system procurement and management isa responsibility of the NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland,0. Dr. S. C. Himmel of the Lewis Agena Project Office is incharge. The Atlas launch vehicle was procured through theSpace Systems Division of the U. S. Air Force.

Launch operations responsibility has been delegatedby the Lewis Research Center to the Launch Operations Branchof the Goddard Space Flight Center, headed by Robert H. Gray.


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General Dynamics/Astronautics, San Diego, Calif.,was prime contractor for the Atlas launch vehicle and, undera separate contract, furnished services necessary to accom-plish integration of all systems and subsystems involved inProject FIRE.

Extensive ground-based support for Project FIRE is beingprovided by the Atlantic Missile Range.

Development of the NASA telespectrograph for remotemeasurement of the reentry trail was a responsibility of theLangley Research Center's Instrument Research Division, head-ed by Francis B. Smith. J. H. Daniel of the Division staffwas in charge of the project. A major role in providing the

mount for the instrument was played by the U. S. NavalOrdnance Test Station, China Lake, Calif. Mechanical partswere furnished by the Cincinnati Milling Machine Co.,

built by the


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/ ' - mAlt.21 mi. Ig \ ~Range 2544 mi. |I \/ I ~~Time 940 sec ,/ ~ t

/ 1500 4 002000

,45000) / /504000\

05000GREAT CIRCLE EARTH TRACIK SPIN-uP.1574 sec/4601 ml./ ~5234m.'SPLASH"LAUNCH . (V/P SHELL JETTISON 1577 sec/4613 mi.

,V V )X259 MOTOR IGN. 1580.2 sec/4624 mi.

6(SPACECRAFT SEPARATION - 308.3 sec/486 mi. THRUST = ZERO AT 1640.2 sec/4958 mi.I RIENTATION . .319.3 sec/535 mi. X259 BURNOUT Alt. 452,458 ft.2 3R/P SEPARATION Vel. 25,;26 mph

Q SUSTAINER ENGINE CUTOFF4 (HSIIROUDEPARATION SEE NOTEWVERNIER CUTOFF -

*BOOSTER JETTISON

NOTE TUMBLE ROCKET IGN. 1646.2 sec/4995 mi. \ ^CONDITIONS REQUIRED FORNASA EXPERIMENTSALTITUDE 400.000 FT

I BECO VELOCITY 25,227 *phRE-ENTRYANGLE-15'(REF HORIZONTAL) SPlASIP 1972 sec/5234 ml.I.IFTOFF-2 INCH MOTION/T o. SEC FIRE Vehicle Trajectory and Flight Sequence of Events


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Project Fire Press Kit