NB-52B Stratofortress carries X-38 Crew Return Vehicle, June 29, 2001

Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress, 52-0008 with X-38 V-131R on the flightline.

The ground crew works to prepare the X-38 V-131R for the seventh test drop of the program.

There had been a problem with some of the radio gear, so it was being switched out.

Gordon Fullerton was walking around the NB-52B doing the pilot's pre-flight check. Fullerton was one of the first Space Shuttle test pilots. Now he flies NASA's 747 shuttle carrier and the NB-52B. He stood out from the ground crew in his tan coveralls..

The man in the tan coveralls is Gordon Fullerton, the pilot of the NB-52B.

The ground crew wraps up the launch preparations for the X-38 V-131R.

Some of the mission symbols on the side of the fuselage of the NB-52B have been revised. The stylized flying horse symbols for the Pegasus satellite launches have been replaced with sihouettes of the actual rocket booster.

X-38 V-131R is fully prepared for launch.

The ground crew fires up the ground power unit to start the engines of the NB-52B.

Gordon Fullerton prepares to taxi the NB-52B to runway 22.

NASA Boeing-McDonnell-Douglas F/A-18B Hornet chase planes, N852NA and N846NA take off from runway 22 at Edwards AFB.

The Hornet chase planes circled and lined up with the runway to catch the NB-52B as it took off. Both Hornets were on our side of the runway.

At 9:20, the Stratofortress belched a cloud of unburned hydrocarbons from its eight J57 turbojet engines and started rolling toward us.

The nose gear of the NB-52B has just lifted off the ground.

The NB-52B lifted off the ground just as it came past us. At the same time, one Hornet passed directly over us and the other passed just behind us, just a few hundred feet off the ground.

Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress, 52-0008 takes off with X-38 V-131R.

Boeing NB-52B Stratofortress, 52-0008 departs to the west with X-38 V-131R.

The trio of planes turn to the north and climb to the launch altitude of 37,500 feet. There would be about an hour before the launch of the X-38. We returned to NASA Dryden to watch the proceedings on closed circuit TV.

About five minutes before the drop they turned on a smoke generator on the left inboard engine nacelle of the NB-52B. I stepped outside and could see the smoke trail approaching from the east. The temperature outside was getting a bit hot.

I tracked the NB-52B and its Hornet chase planes as it crossed over the Air Force Base. I watched carefully to see the X-38 fall away from the Stratofortress and deploy its parafoil. The parafoil is larger in area than the wing of a 747.

The smoke trail curved to the right and then stopped. I searched the sky for the X-38 and its huge parafoil, but I couldn't find it.

I went back inside and was informed that "they called an abort at about T-minus nothing." They had suffered a failure of the Flight Termination System. It would take a half hour to cool down before they could attempt the launch again. I went outside again to watch for the return of the Stratofortress.

The NB-52B flies over Edwards AFB with X-38 V-131R following the launch abort. The small white object at the right is a weather balloon that was released about an hour earlier.

A short while later I learned that they had called an abort for the day. The launch systems were going to take so long to reset that the Hornets wouldn't have enough fuel to follow the X-38 after launch.

Link to the NASA Dryden press release about the X-38 launch abort on June 29.