May 8 2004
From The Space Library
A prototype of the Phoenix reusable launch vehicle (RLV), a joint project of European public and private funders, successfully completed its first atmospheric test flight. According to major media sources, European space agencies hoped eventually to use the Phoenix to launch payloads. The vehicle prototype was approximately 23 feet (7 meters) long and weighed 2,640 pounds (1,200 kilograms). During the test flight, a helicopter released the vehicle prototype from an altitude of 8,000 feet (2,400 meters). The Phoenix landed 90 seconds later at an airport in Vidsel, Sweden. EADS Space Transportation, along with German aerospace company OHB-System AG, the German Aerospace Center, and the government of Bremen, Germany, had funded the Phoenix. (Frank Morring Jr., “In Orbit,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 160, no. 20 (17 May 2004): 17; Frank Morring Jr., “In Orbit,” Aviation Week and Space Technology 160, no. 11 (15 March 2004): 17; Mattias Karen for Associated Press, “Europeans Test Space-Shuttle Prototype,” 9 May 2004.
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