Mar 21 2001
From The Space Library
NASA announced that its X-40A aircraft, built by the Boeing Company and on loan from the U.S. Air Force, had successfully passed a test flight, giving the X-37 program a major boost. NASA had designed the X-37, a reusable craft that could launch into space and return safely, for use in testing NASA technologies. To test the flight-control system planned for the X-37, an Army Chinook helicopter lifted the X-40A aircraft to 15,000 feet (4,570 meters) and then released it to a safe landing. NASA’s director of the X-37 program called the successful test, “a cause for celebration,” saying that incremental tests on prototype airplanes would ultimately make the X-37 program both cost-efficient and successful. Scientists hailed the safe landing of the X-40A as a triumph of cooperation among the U.S. military, NASA, and the Boeing Company, with each of the three playing a vital role in the development of the successful craft. (NASA, “Successful X-40A Test Flight Gives Major Boost to NASA’s X-37 Program,” news release 01-51, 21 March 2001; M2 Presswire, “X-40A Flight Test Successful; Major Milestone in X037 Space Plane Project,” 15 March 2001.)
Space Shuttle Discovery landed at NASA’s KSC in Cape Canaveral, Florida, returning to Earth the crew of Expedition 1 ~Commander William M. Shepherd, Flight Engineer Sergei K. Krikalev, and Soyuz Commander Yuri P. Gidzenko. The Expedition 1 crew had lived and worked aboard the ISS since 31 October 2000. Commander James D. Wetherbee and Pilot James M. Kelly guided Discovery to a smooth night landing, the 17th night landing in the history of the Space Shuttle program and the 12th in the history of KSC. (NASA JSC, “STS-102, Mission Control Center Status Report # 27,” 21 March 2001, http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/spacenews/reports/sts102/STS-102-27.html (accessed 2 February 2009).
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