 Preserved ASSET vehicle at USAF Museum, Dayton, Ohio | |
| Function | experimental US space project involving the testing of an uncrewed sub-scalereentry vehicle. |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | McDonnell Aircraft |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Size | |
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) |
| Width | 4 ft 7 in (1.40 m) |
| Mass | 1,190 lb (540 kg) |
| Launch history | |
| Status | Retired |
| Launch sites | Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Space Launch Complex 17 |
| Total launches | 6 |
| Success(es) | 1 |
| Partial failure | 5 (vehicles not recovered though flights were successful) |
| First flight | 18 September 1963 |
| Last flight | 23 February 1965 |
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ASSET, orAerothermodynamic Elastic Structural Systems Environmental Tests was an experimental US space project involving the testing of an uncrewed sub-scalereentry vehicle.
Begun in 1960, ASSET was originally designed to verify the superalloyheat shield of theX-20 Dyna-Soar prior to full-scale crewed flights. The vehicle'sbiconic shape and lowdelta wing were intended to represent Dyna-Soar's forward nose section, where theaerodynamic heating would be the most intense; in excess of an estimated 2200 °C (4000 °F) at thenose cap.
Following the X-20 Dyna-Soar programs' cancellation in December 1963, completed ASSET vehicles were used in reentry heating andstructural investigations with hopes that data gathered would be useful for the development of futurespace vehicles, such as theSpace Shuttle.[1]
Built byMcDonnell, each vehicle was launched on asuborbital trajectory fromCape Canaveral's Pad 17B at speeds of up to 6000 m/s before making awater landing in the SouthAtlantic nearAscension Island.
Originally, aScout launch vehicle had been planned for the tests, but this was changed after a large surplus ofThor andThor-Delta missiles (returned from deployment in theUnited Kingdom) became available.[2]
Of the six vehicles built, only one was successfully recovered and is currently on display at theNational Museum of the United States Air Force inDayton, Ohio.[2]
| Mission | Launch date | Apogee | Max. speed | Result | Disposition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ASSET 1 | September 18, 1963 | 62 km | 4,906 m/s | Survived reentry; flotation equipment malfunctioned, preventing planned recovery. | Sunk in Atlantic.[2] |
| ASSET 2 | March 24, 1964 | 55 km | Launch vehicle upper stage malfunction; vehicle self-destruct mechanism activated post-separation. Mission failed. | Destroyed.[2] | |
| ASSET 3 | July 22, 1964 | 71 km | 5,500 m/s | Survived reentry; all mission goals met. | Recovered 12 hours after launch. Preserved.[2] |
| ASSET 4 | October 28, 1964 | 50 km | 4,000 m/s | Survived reentry; all mission goals met; recovery not planned. | Sunk in Atlantic.[2] |
| ASSET 5 | December 9, 1964 | 53 km | 4,000 m/s | Survived reentry; all mission goals met; recovery not planned. | Sunk in Atlantic.[2] |
| ASSET 6 | February 23, 1965 | 70 km | 6,000 m/s | Survived reentry; flotation equipment malfunctioned, preventing planned recovery. | Sunk in Atlantic.[2] |
In the mid-1960s,McDonnell proposed a variant of theGemini capsule that retained the original spacecraft's internal subsystems and crew compartment, but dispensed with the tail-first ballistic reentry, parachute recovery and water landing.
Instead, the vehicle would be heavily modified externally into an ASSET-likelifting-reentry configuration. Post-reentry, a pair of stowed swing-wings would be deployed, giving the spacecraft sufficientlift-to-drag ratio to make a piloted glide landing on a concrete runway using a skid-type landing gear (reinstated from the planned, but cancelled paraglider landing system), much like theSpace Shuttle.
According to Mark Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica, the intent seems to have been to field a crewed military spaceplane at a minimal cost following the cancellation of the Dyna-Soar program.[3]