Houston, TX, November 8, 2024 – Government program continues successfully Airborne assault, promoted by Presidency of the Council of Ministers, thanks to a series of fundamental tests completed at the Houston Air and Spaceport. The program, coordinated by the National Research Council (CNR), saw the participation of Lucia Paciucci (Cnr-Institute for air pollution), Project Manager, and Pantaleone Carlucci (CNR-Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate), Technical Manager of the Program, together with important industrial partners, confirming the strategic importance of the initiative in the context of Italian space research.
Thanks to the support of test pilot Todd Ericson of FTR Enterprises, which in the program is responsible for operating the aircraft and performing the integration of the sounding rocket with the aircraft, four tests in total have been completed: two taxi tests on October 31 and two flights lasting about an hour each on November 6th. taxi test initials included the aircraft movement along Taxiway H and a high speed race on Runway 17R, for check the stability of the connection Starlink during the movement and simulate the conditions of a take-off.
I test flights, subsequently, they allowed to validate several aspects crucial to the success of the mission. During the first flight, several tests were performed handling test of the aircraft e sham il Profile di mission expected Warehouse release of the sounding Rocket, rocket suborbital developed and technologies atvanguard. For the entire duration of the flight, the data transmission software, developed by the CNR, ha monitored and kept under control over 50 critical parameters of the on-board “dummy”, guaranteeing la broadcast constant of the data collected to the ground monitoring system. This first flight also allowed us to get closer to the safety procedures that will be adopted during the final flight, in which the release of the vector is expected.
Between the first and second flights, the team performed ground checks, ensuring that all collected parameters were displayed and saved correctly, demonstrating the robustness of the system and its ability to handle large amounts of data in real time.The test pilot confirmed the possibility of replicate with precision the maneuvers di release a Quote progressively more, until reaching the altitude planned for the final flight.
In second flight, have been successfully performed four Sounding Rocket release simulations, exceeding all expectations in terms of reliability and precision. This result confirmed the robustness of the data acquisition and transmission system, which performed flawlessly even under dynamic conditions.
I Collected data were monitored in near real time via the ground segment designed by CNR with a with and decoded the data and plotted it in real time integrated into a flight simulator that displayed the dummy in 3D simulated environment conditions, allowing aanalysis detailed and immediate system performance. Partner of the program, including T4i of Padua, engaged in the development of an innovative engine for the Sounding Rocket, and GMV, responsible for the avionics design, enthusiastically followed the tests, underlining the technological and operational readiness of the system for future phases of the program.
The success of these tests marks a step fundamental Warehouse program Airborne assault, an initiative that aims to develop a platform, national di accesso to the space, able to consolidation il role ofItaly of Research and in uses aerospace Advanced.