Space Shuttle Prototype Glides Safely to Earth

Space shuttle prototype glides safely to Earth

From Journal Sentinel wire reports

Sunday, May 9, 2004

Stockholm, Sweden — An unmanned prototype of a European space shuttle glided safely back to Earth on Saturday after being dropped from nearly 8,000 feet up by a helicopter in a successful test.

Guided by Global Positioning System satellites, the German- designed EADS Phoenix was dropped by a heavy-duty helicopter over Sweden at 9:45 a.m. and “landed perfectly” 90 seconds later on a test runway north of Stockholm, a project spokeswoman said.

“Everyone here is ecstatic,” said Johanna Bergstroem-Roos, of the North European Aerospace Test Range in Kiruna, 770 miles north of Stockholm. “This gives us wind in our sails.”

The Phoenix shuttle, along with the Ariane 5 rocket, represents the European Space Agency’s hope for sending astronauts into space, but project managers concede that a full-size version will not be ready until sometime between 2015 and 2020.

The test flight was originally planned for Friday but was postponed so technicians could finish analyzing data from an earlier test of the vehicle’s onboard computers last week.