Free Republic

FORT STOCKTON, Texas - NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, the U.S. Air Force Flight Test Center and Blacksky Corp. joined forces on the prairie lands of West Texas to fly small aerospike rocket nozzles. The effort, called the Dryden Aerospike Rocket Test, provided the first known data from a solid-fueled aerospike rocket in flight. Two 10-foot-long solid-fueled rockets with aerospike nozzles were flown successfully on two consecutive flights March 30 and 31. Under perfect skies and calm winds, the rockets ascended from the King Ranch launch site at the Pecos County Aerospace Development Corp. Flight Test Range in Fort Stockton,...