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Tue, Nov 19, 2002

Japan's 'Space Shuttle' UAV: Successful Flight

Third Flight for Little Shuttle

It's just a scale model, and it weighs just 1600 pounds, but Japan's own reusable space vehicle is another step closer to reality because of it.

Looking like a squat Space Shuttle, the NASDA craft was propelled to 16,500 feet by an integral jet engine over the Pacific, on Christmas Island, Republic of Kiribati.

The power was chopped, and the 10-foot-wingspan UAV descended, making a successful landing, after eighteen minutes of flight.

The white machine, carrying the catch monicker "HSFD [High Speed Flight Demonstration] Vehicle #1," will eventually be scaled up to be a working, 20-ton, "real" shuttle.

This was the third flight of the small machine. Its actual scale is roughly 1:4, compared to the planned true space vehicle.

It is designed to portend a reusable, unmanned craft that could haul supplies or satellites into space, and return with garbage, scientific samples, or even, empty.

FMI: www.nasda.go.jp/projects/rockets/hsfd/index_e.html

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