X-43A First Free Flight, June 2, 2001

(Download a higher resolution picture by clicking on any picture below. The photographs on the right side of the page were taken by the photographers of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.)

I was at Edwards AFB on Saturday, June 2 to get pictures of the NB-52B taking off for the first launch of the X-43A Hyper-X supersonic combustion ramjet testbed.

The media entourage set up early and waited with our tripods set up in a row along a dirt road just to the north side of the main runway. Fortunately, I don't think it was over 90 degrees out. There was a refreshing wind blowing, too.

After a while we could see the tail and the top of the fuselage of the NB-52B moving past the control tower in the distance. The hot, June air made the image of the tall, silver tail with its yellow stripe shimmer as if it were reflected off the ripples of a pond.

Blue and white NASA F/A-18B Hornet chase planes take-off as the NB-52B holds short of Runway 22.

The Hornets circled the field and lined up with the runway again to catch the NB-52B as it took off.

A black cloud billowed from the eight J57 turbojets of the NB-52B as it started rolling toward us.

We were near the 11,000 foot marker of the runway.

The NB-52B was just lifting off the ground as it went past us.

I have a vague recollection of looking directly at the side of the X-43A close-up for a brief moment through my viewfinder.

NASA photograph ec01-0182-01.

At the same instant, the Hornet on our side of the runway passed directly overhead at very, very low altitude. The shriek of its engines was even louder than the NB-52B taking off in front of us. It would have been a fabulous picture if I hadn't been otherwise occupied just at that moment.

The gear of the NB-52B is retracting.

Although NB-52B and its chase planes were going to head offshore just west of Goleta, they turned to the north and back to the east to gain altitude in the relatively uncrowded airspace over the Mojave desert.

We piled back into the white NASA vans and were driven back to Dryden to watch the television transmission from the NB-52B. In the auditorium they were showing closed circuit TV from the chase plane and the NB-52B on several monitors around the room and on a big screen at the front of the room. The video signal from the Hornet chase plane was relayed through the NB-52B. I aimed my video camera at the big screen to make a rough record of the events.

Sometimes they showed the view from the chase plane. The chase plane had the call sign NASA Two. The video camera operator in the back seat of the chase plane adjusted the zoom to show wide views of the NB-52B and close-ups of the X-43A.

Sometimes the view switched to extreme close-up shots of the Hyper-X stack from the forward and aft video cameras on the side of the NB-52B.

At first we could see the Santa Barbara County back country in the background. Later we saw Point Arguello and Point Conception pass under the wing. Then there was just unidentifiable cloudy ocean below.

We could hear the radio transmissions from the aircraft as they checked out and set up the systems for the launch.

The launch panel operator turned on a smoke trail to aid the tracking of the NB-52B. Finally they counted down the seconds to launch. The X-43A on its Orbital Sciences Pegasus booster dropped from the NB-52B.

I transcribed the following audio transmissions from a videotape that I shot of the big screen during the launch (the numbers are a rough estimate of the seconds after launch):

00 Ground: Launch...launch...launch

The Hyper-X stack fell for a few seconds.

X-43A drops from the NB-52B. NASA photograph ec01-0182-20.

03 NASA2: stable

04 NASA2: ignition

Orbital Sciences Pegasus booster ignites to propel the X-43A its first flight. NASA photograph ec01-0182-20.

The X-43A stack accelerated quickly away from the Hornet chase plane.

10 NASA2: OK. It's bottomed out. It's starting to climb. Looking good.

14 NASA2: Now it's...uh...yawing

We could see the Hyper-X stack turn sharply to the left, then the transmission of the image broke up for several seconds.

16 NASA2: It's out of control

20 NASA2: wild gyrations...uh..We'll try to stay with it here

Every few seconds the image would clear up and we could see the booster spinning and spewing flame as it fell toward the Pacific.

25 NASA2: Uh...tumbling end over end...now uh...

30 NASA2: Now dropping. Still yawing left

X-43A stack spins to destruction over the Pacific Ocean. NASA photograph EC01-0182-11.

34 Ground: NASA Two, we're going to have to terminate

37 NASA2: NASA Two copies

38 Ground: The aircraft clear?

43 NASA2: All are clear

The picture on the screen changed to a telephoto view of the desert from a camera on base.

45 Ground: OK the aircraft are clear. We are going to arm...

48 Ground: and terminate.

The flight was terminated by explosive destruct charges fifty seconds after the launch.

(Note that the above transcript is not official and contains some inaccuracies. The sound quality was not the best, so I definitely don't have all the words exactly right.)

There was no chance to get any data from the first X-43A. No conclusions about supersonic combustion ramjet technology, either positive or negative, can be inferred from the failure of the mission. There are two more vehicles under construction. The next X-43A launch was nominally scheduled for six months from this attempt. That date will probably slip somewhat as the loss of this mission is investigated.

Link to NASA's June 2, 2001 press release about the first free flight launch.

Link to a NASA Langley paper model of the X-43A that you can print and assemble.

Link to the NASA Dryden X-43A Hyper-X Photo Gallery.

Link to NASA Dryden's X-43 Fact Sheet.

Link to NASA Dryden's X-43 Project Page.