BOOYAA!! First succesfull XR5 reentry!

[SlyCoopersButt]

Not a true re-entry, As it was suborbital flight. I once came back down from a totally maxed out in every possible way scram engine only flight with an XR5 in an odd way. The temp was red for both scram engines, Was at the highest possible cruise altitude and speed. And was doing so for about 45+ mins or even an hour. I had the radiator deployed all that time as well just to stay cool on such a long scram flight. Was at 2.5 degree on the attitude hold, Maybe a hair less. And then when I wanted to come back down again, I simply dumped every possible Kilo I could from the ship with the exception of APU and a Little RCS if I remember correctly and simply did nothing else. It took over half an hour to reach the surface. It was like dropping a feather from a plane. Was such a gentle descent the radiator was deployed nearly the whole time.

Longest descent I have ever done.

 

[RisingFury]

Yea, cos you keep on "bouncing" off the atmosphere. It's a nice way to fly a long distance when your fuel is gone.

 

[tonykattvc]

Although this is probably the exact opposite of the topic in this thread, I can never get into orbit with the XR5. Every time i use the Scrams in the atmo i start falling at about 50 m/s. When i do manage to get out of the atmosphere and do an orbital insertion burn, my nose keeps turing towards the earth and eventually i burn up in the atmosphere at Mach 5.


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Although it could have been from my CTA (Chronic Time Acceleration) and my neglect to switch to RCS rotation.:rofl:

 

[eveningsky339]

My first re-entry with the XR5 was a very near disaster. My AOA was about 50 and I was banked 100 degrees to the left. Hull temps went red and I pulled about 9 g's, but I bled off speed before things fell apart.

I have a hunch that this particular spacecraft was not designed for ballistic re-entries.

 

[Pilot7893]

Although this is probably the exact opposite of the topic in this thread, I can never get into orbit with the XR5. Every time i use the Scrams in the atmo i start falling at about 50 m/s. When i do manage to get out of the atmosphere and do an orbital insertion burn, my nose keeps turing towards the earth and eventually i burn up in the atmosphere at Mach 5.


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Although it could have been from my CTA (Chronic Time Acceleration) and my neglect to switch to RCS rotation.:rofl:

I just do the whole launch with main engines

 

[Belisarius]

Interesting thoughts on reentry techniques. I'd like to share mine on radiators, which were mentioned above.
For those who like doing "skip" type reentries in the XR5, the main problem becomes the internal coolant temp. If the reentry takes half an hour or more, the temp will almost certainly go critical.
So remember: your radiators can withstand up to 16KPa in dynamic pressure, a pretty high tolerance. On the "going up" phases of the skip, deploy the radiator. As you go back down, watch the pressure and when it reaches 10KPa, bring them back in.

 

[James.Denholm]

Thanks for the tip, Bel!

 

[tonykattvc]

I just do the whole launch with main engines

So do i.

 

[Fabri91]

Today I just did my first space flight in the XR5: I manage to get into a 200km LEO with about 50% remaining fuel, but as I do my reentry, I miss KSC by 2000km...nevermind, scramjets are here for a reason, I say to myself.
But just then the coolant temp got critical and I manage to get down on the west coast of Florida without MFDs, which had failed as the coolant reached 90%...after I landed visually, I refuel and cool down to make the hop to KSC, and succeed.