| HOPE-X | |
|---|---|
| Country: | Japan  |
| Contract award: | 1980s |
| Status: | Project cancelled |
HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between NASDA and NAL (both now part of JAXA), started in the 1980s. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. A spaceplane is a Rocket plane designed to pass the Edge of space. The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the The, or JAXA, is Japan's national Aerospace agency JAXA was formed on October 1 2003 as an Independent Administrative Institution through the It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station, the other being the Japanese Experiment Module. The Japanese Experiment Module (JEM ( Japanese: Kibō きぼう Hope is a Japanese science module for the International Space Station The project was eventually cancelled in 2003, by which point test flights of a sub-scale testbed had flown successfully.
The original HOPE project called for the building of a sub-scale orbital prototype known as HOPE-X, for H-2 Orbiting Plane, Experimental. This would be used for flight testing and systems validation, before moving onto the larger HOPE, which used many of the same parts and general design in a 4-man 22-metric-ton (49,000 lb) design. This article is about the tonne or metric ton For other tons see Ton. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass As the name implies, both would be launched on Japan's new H-2 launcher, the full-scale HOPE requiring substantial upgrades in performance. The H-II ( H2) rocket was a Japanese satellite launch system, which flew seven times between 1994 and 1999 with five successes At the time, Japan was an up-and-coming industrial powerhouse, and their space program was moving from success to success. There was little doubt, and a little trepidation, that HOPE would be successful.
As part of the overall Japanese space program, testing for technologies that would be used on HOPE and other projects was well advanced. In February 1994 the first test flight of the new H-2 launcher was used to also launch the experimental OREX ballistic re-entry vehicle, which tested various communications systems, heating profiles and heat shielding components. OREX ( Orbital Re-Entry EXperiment) was a NASDA reentry demonstrator prototype which was launched in 1994 on the H-II launcher Another project, Hyflex, followed in February 1996. Hyflex ( Hypersonic Flight Experiment) was a NASDA reentry demonstrator prototype which was launched in 1996 on the only flight of the J-I launcher Hyflex was intended to test the carbon-carbon heat shielding tiles that were intended to be used on HOPE, as well as having the same body shaping in order to gather data on hypersonic lifting. Reinforced Carbon-Carbon ( carbon-carbon or RCC) is a Composite material consisting of Carbon fiber reinforcement in a matrix of Graphite Hyflex was successful, but sank in the Pacific after splashdown before it could be recovered.
In 1997, well into the study, it was decided that HOPE-X should be modified into an unmanned cargo vehicle with the addition of automated approach and docking systems, and a cargo bay with doors similar to the one on the U. S. Space Shuttle. NASA 's Space Shuttle, officially called the Space Transportation System ( STS) is the Spacecraft currently used by the United States It was believed this would result in a "quick and dirty" cargo supply system for ISS, which was suffering from continued delays due to problems with the Shuttle program. It was estimated that such a conversion could be completed for an additional US$292 million, less expensive than designing a completely new ballistic cargo vehicle for the H-2 launcher, and much less expensive that the estimated US$2. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 9 billion needed to complete the full-sized HOPE. Even the small HOPE-X launched on unmodified H-2A rockets would deliver a useful 3 metric tons (6,600 lb) to ISS, about the same as the Progress spacecraft's approximate 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb). HOPE-X was about 12 metres (39 ft) long with a 9 metres (30 ft) wingspan, and looked quite a bit like the U. S. X-20 Dyna-Soar. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout
In 1998, the H-2 suffered from a string of failures. A re-evaluation of the entire space program followed, and budget constraints later forced a reduction in overall funding by US$690 million to US$4. 22 billion for the five-year spending period between 1998 and 2002. This would force a delay in the timeline for the HOPE-X, with its first flight in 2003. By this time NASDA had spent only US$305 million since the project was approved in 1988, reflecting the status as a research project. The next year the H-2 project was cancelled outright, proceeding with the simplified and lighter H-2A alone. Hughes pulled out of the H-2A project at about this time; they had initially purchased ten launches on the system and it was considered a major international success for NASDA. Hughes Aircraft Company was a major aerospace and defense company founded by Howard Hughes.
HOPE continued to soldier on. In 2000, an agreement was signed to land the returning vehicle at Christmas Island's Aeon Airstrip. Kiritimati or Christmas Island is a Pacific Ocean Atoll in the northern Line Islands and part of the Republic of Kiribati. As the 2003 deadline approached a number of debates broke out about the launcher profile, with many arguing that the H-2 should be replaced with a jet-powered cargo aircraft for an air-start. The first-flight was pushed back further to 2004. Before this milestone was reached a major re-organization of NASDA took place in order to address its obvious overcommitment, especially now that there were demands for a crash program to develop spy satellites in order to track North Korean nuclear efforts. A spy satellite (officially referred to as a reconnaissance satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or Communications satellite deployed for North Korea is the commonly used short form name for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (or DPRK) a State located in East Asia, JAXA was formed, and HOPE was cancelled during this process.
Work continues on spaceplane development, however, under the High Speed Flight Demonstration (HSFD) project, although the HSFD design bears little resemblance to the Shuttle-like HOPE.
See also
- Space Shuttle program
- EADS Phoenix - successor to the cancelled Hermes program that was a contemporary of HOPE. NASA 's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System ( STS) is the United States government's current manned Launch Hermes was a proposed mini-shuttle designed by the French Centre national d'études spatiales ( CNES) in 1975, and later by the European Space Agency
- Buran (spacecraft)
External links
The Buran spacecraft ( Буран "Snowstorm" or "Blizzard") GRAU index 11F35 K1, was the only fully completed and operationalDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic