Charles R. Smith
Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2003

The NASA X-15 was the world's first space-plane designed to investigate manned hypersonic flight. The X-15 was flown over a period of nearly 10 years, from June 1959 to October 1968. The black rocket-powered space plane set the world's unofficial speed and altitude records of 4,520 mph or Mach 6.7 and 354,200 feet.

Three X-15s made a total of 199 flights. North American Aviation manufactured all three. Information gained from the highly successful X-15 program contributed to the development of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and the Space Shuttle programs.

On Nov. 15, 1967, X-15 ship #3 was launched over Delamar Lake, Nev., with Astronaut USAF Maj. Michael J. Adams at the controls. The sleek rocket-powered spacecraft reached a speed of Mach 5.2 and a peak altitude of 266,000 feet.

During the climb into space, an electrical disturbance from an onboard experiment degraded the aircraft's controllability. The X-15 began a slow drift in heading, which soon turned into a flat spin at over 200,000 feet.

Maj. Adams radioed that the X-15 "seems squirrelly" and then said, "I'm in a spin."

Adams somehow managed to recover from the spin and entered into an inverted Mach 4.7 dive. As the X-15 fell into the increasingly thicker atmosphere, the onboard Honeywell adaptive flight control system caused the vehicle to begin oscillating. As the pitching motion increased, aerodynamic forces finally broke the aircraft into several major pieces as it reached the thicker air at 60,000 feet.

Adams was killed when the forward fuselage impacted the desert. This was the only fatal accident during the entire X-15 program.

Soyuz 1

The U.S. is not the only nation to suffer loss of life during manned space flight. Russia lost its first cosmonaut in April 1967 when Vladimir Komarov died while trying to return to Earth in his Soyuz 1 spacecraft.

Komarov ran into trouble immediately after blasting into orbit from the Baikonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. One of the solar panels failed to deploy, staying wrapped around the Soyuz service module. Attempts to control the Soyuz failed and a decision was made to bring Komarov back.

Re-entry was successful, and the drag chute deployed. However, because of a failure of a pressure sensor, the main parachute would not deploy. Komarov released the reserve chute, but it became tangled with the drag chute. The descent module crashed into a field near Orenburg, killing Komarov instantly.

Soyuz 11

Russia also suffered an even more devastating loss in 1971 with the failed Soyuz 11 mission. Soyuz 11 was the first successful flight to the Russian civilian space station Salyut 1. The Soyuz 10 mission to Salyut was aborted because the crew could not enter the space station.

On June 6, 1971, cosmonauts Viktor Patsayev, Georgi Dobrovolsky, and Vladislav Volkov blasted into space and docked with Salyut 1 on the following day. On June 29, 1971, the three cosmonauts boarded the Soyuz 11 command module for their re-entry to Earth after completing their flight plan successfully.

During re-entry, a failure in the firing of the pyrotechnic devices that separate the Soyuz orbital module from the return module caused a pressure equalization valve to remain open and thus allowed the atmosphere to leak out.

The Soyuz cabin began to lose pressure, and oxygen. Cosmonaut Viktor Patsayev attempted to close the valve but he could not get it completely closed before he died from lack of oxygen. The Soyuz 11 spacecraft landed successfully, but the recovery teams found all three cosmonauts dead.

As a result of this accident, all Soyuz crews have worn pressure suits during launch, re-entry, and docking activities. The Soviet Union did not return to Salyut 1, and it was more than two years before they attempted another manned mission.

Ariane, Proton and X-43

The destruction of Columbia is not the only recent space failure. Russia and Europe are still trying to recover from two recently failed space flights.

The European Ariane 5 rocket suffered a major setback when it was destroyed during its inaugural launch Dec. 11, 2002. The rocket was destroyed three minutes after liftoff reportedly because of a main engine failure in the first stage.

The Ariane was carrying two satellites: the Hot Bird 7 communications satellite for Eutelsat and the Stentor experimental spacecraft for the French space agency CNES.

The failure has forced Arianespace to redesign the main stage engine nozzle, which was found to be the root of the launch failure, a move estimated to cost more than $200 million. The Ariane 5 failure has also forced the delay of several satellites including the Rosetta space probe, which was to rendezvous with the comet Wirtanen.

The Russian space program also suffered a setback on Nov. 26, 2002 when its Proton K booster failed to place an Astra 1K communications satellite into the correct orbit.

The failure has been attributed to the Proton K's Block DM upper stage that failed to place the SES Astra satellite into a proper orbit. The initial investigation into the failure points to a possible contamination of the upper stage fuel supply that disabled its engine.

NASA has been trying to find a replacement for the shuttle orbiter for many years. One possible solution in the early stages of development is the X-43. The space agency is scheduled to begin flight-testing of the X-43A unmanned vehicle this summer. The X-43A is scheduled to fly on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus vehicle to study hypersonic flight.

A powered version of the X-43, the C model, is not scheduled to fly until 2007. The NASA vehicle will be flight tested with an Air Force scramjet engine at speeds of nearly Mach 7, or seven times the speed of sound.

Chinese Military's Manned Spacecraft

Despite the failures in Russia, America and Europe, there is one space program that is on track for a manned flight this fall. On Dec. 30, 2002, China's Shenzhou military space program completed a successful unmanned flight after liftoff on a Long March 2F vehicle from its pad located at the Jiuquan satellite launch center.

The Shenzhou 4 spacecraft completed its mission and successfully returned to earth. The Chinese military Shenzhou spacecraft is based on the Russian Soyuz design. However, the Shenzhou is larger and considered to be more capable than the older Russian design.

Chinese officials have acknowledged the military nature of the Shenzhou space program. Huang Chunping, head of the Long March 2F program, noted in an interview for the People's Daily that the basic technology being developed by the Shenzhou program would aid Chinese military space development.

The state-run newspaper also quoted an unnamed People's Liberation Army officer who clearly stated the military significance of the Shenzhou missions, noting that the PLA considers manned space flight capability as vital to Chinese national security.

"In the current and future state security strategy, if one wants not to be controlled by others, one must have considerable space, scientific and technological strength - otherwise one will be bullied," stated the PLA officer.

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