Main Achievements of the Rocket Technology Flight Experiment ROTEX-T

• Main Authors: Gülhan, Ali, Thiele, Thomas, Siebe, Frank, Klingenberg, Florian, Kronen, Rolf, Stamminger, Andreas, Scheuerpflug, Frank, Kallenbach, Alexander, Jung, Wolfgang
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: German
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Über- und Hyperschalltechnologien; KP; Esrange; Kiruna; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://elib.dlr.de/113247/; https://elib.dlr.de/113247/1/aiaa%20spacplane%20rotex_t%20wcp.pdf

Based on experience gathered during the hypersonic flight experiments SHEFEX-I and SHEFEX-II the German Aerospace Center (DLR) performed the extensively instrumented flight experiment ROTEX-T (ROcket Technology EXperiment-Transition). ROTEX-T was successfully launched on 19th July 2016 at 06:05 am CEST from the Esrange Space Center near Kiruna in northern Sweden. Students of the RWTH Aachen University supported the design of the project with numerical simulations. ROTEX-T was a low cost flight experiment mission without inertial measurement unit, reaction control and parachute system. The payload reached an altitude of 183 kilometers, performed a ballistic re-entry with a total flight time of approximately 446 seconds and was afterwards recovered by helicopter. An unique and modular data acquisition system with sampling rates of 20 Hz, 1 kHz, 10 kHz and 2000 kHz was developed for ROTEX-T to study also instationary aerothermal phenomena.