Aerocapture manoeuvre planned for 2007

EADS Launch Vehicles plans to launch a demonstration flight to carry out a simulation of the aerocapture manoeuvre which will be used on future CNES/NASA Mars sample return missions.

A proposed flight into the Earth’s atmosphere is planned for 2007 using the European Space Agency’s Atmospheric Re-entry Vehicle Demonstrator, which will be launched via a Starsem Soyuz ST-Fregat booster.

The demonstrator will enter a 10,500 km by 27,000 km Earth orbit, making an apogee manoeuvre in order to reduce perigee to 60 km for the simulation of the aerocapture.