WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE, N.M., July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- The Delta Clipper-Experimental launch vehicle (DC-X) has successfully completed its eighth flight while performing the critical rotation maneuver that a vertical-landing rocket would execute after re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

After climbing to 8,200 feet at a maximum ascent rate of 240 feet per second today, the McDonnell Douglas-built experimental rocket set up for the maneuver by pointing its nose 10 degrees below the horizon, and then it rotated 138 degrees to a base-first flight attitude. The DC-X then landed base first using its four Pratt & Whitney RL-10 engines as brakes.

"Today, the DC-X demonstrated the maneuver required by a full-scale vertical-landing reusable launch vehicle using propulsion control," said Dave Schweikle, director of McDonnell Douglas' DC-X program. "The incremental expansion of the DC-X flight envelope over the previous flights has been in preparation for this critical maneuver," he explained.

The test flight for the DC-X, a vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing rocket, began at 7:02 a.m. MDT at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range. Total flight time was two minutes and four seconds.

The maximum altitude of today's flight was 8,200 feet, which exceeded the 5,700 feet flown during the last flight on June 12. During the ascent, the DC-X traveled 2,100 feet down range from the flight pad and performed the 138 degree rotation maneuver as it returned toward the landing site. The DC-X descended base first at 165 feet per second from an altitude of about 7,000 feet, using its engines to brake for a landing.

Each flight continues to demonstrate the feasibility of a reusable rocket which has aircraft-like operability and maintainability. Similar to the June 12 test, post-flight activities will provide information for rapid turnaround between flights for a reusable launch vehicle.

The DC-X, built by McDonnell Douglas in Huntington Beach, Calif., is managed by the U.S. Air Force Phillips Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico. Flight test support is provided by the Air Force Space and Missile Center, Test and Evaluation Directorate.

When this year's flight test program ends, McDonnell Douglas will integrate key advanced technology components into the experimental vehicle under a series of cooperative agreements awarded by NASA. Flight tests are scheduled to resume in 1996; the vehicle will be called the DC-XA.

CO: McDonnell Douglas
ST: New Mexico, California
IN: ARO
SU: PDT