X-60A - Generation Orbit Launch Services 'X-plane'

Hi.

It seems we did not have a thread dedicated to this new X-plane yet (aside from some scattered posts on another thread, "US Prompt Global Strike Capability").

May this thread be used as a repository and move to aerospace whence the bird flies for real:

AIR FORCE X-60A ROCKET VEHICLE LEADS HYPERSONIC FLIGHT RESEARCH- AFRL - fact sheet - October 3, 2018
source:
https://www.wpafb.af.mil/Portals/60/documents/afrl/rq/wpafb/AFRL%20X60A%20Fact%20Sheet%203%20Oct%202018.pdf

A.

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Check out this recently approved photo from our first hot fire of the X-60A propulsion system (formerly the GOLauncher 1). Our GO team in ATL and our partners are working hard to bring this critical flight research testbed to flight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=254lEUvImDg

The
@AFResearchLab
, which is having a busy week, released a new video showing the X-60A concept for a liquid fuel rocket testbed for hypersonic flight conditions. The X-60A also just passed a critical design review.

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https://twitter.com/TheDEWLine/status/1103454266428178433

https://youtu.be/Ud-dE1OnbFg

X-60A hypersonic research rocket completes critical design review

The US Air Force’s X-60A hypersonic research vehicle completed its critical design review.

The programme is now moving into the fabrication phase, with the initial flight of the vehicle scheduled to take place in about a year at Cecil Spaceport in Jacksonville, Florida, says the USAF. The liquid-rocket powered vehicle is designed to be launched after being dropped from under the belly of a NASA C-20A, a military version of the Gulfstream III business jet.

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It is my own personal speculation that once the Quarterhorse hypersonic aircraft made by Hermeus passes flightworthiness, it will be used to test launching the X-60 for a TSTO launcher that will be able to reach GTO. The founder of both Generation Orbit (X-60) and Hermeus is AJ Piplica. Photo from airforce-technology.com of its temporary launcher. This is in line with Dr. Heiser’s statement that “the most efficient means to get to space is an air breathing stage followed by a rocket stage” (Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion)

Interesting, I see the point you are making. The rocket that will start launching from that bizjet (hence, below Mach 1) will later move to Hermeus: because the guy behind the two is the same.

Well, let's crunch some numbers. Launching from a bizjet with the following parameters
- 50 000 ft
- Mach 0.9
- 30degree AoA
Can remove 1100 m/s out of ascent to earth orbit 9000 m/s+

Now, a mach 2 launch plane would cut 1600 m/s; Mach 3, 2000 m/s.

Wikipedia tells me Hermeus is good for Mach 5 and, according to Mitchell Burnside Clapp of Black Horse fame, it would take a Mach 5.5 to cut 3000 m/s out of ascent to orbit 9000 m/s+

The "Mach 5.5" option in which subsonic combustion ramjets are employed to bring the APT up to Mach 5.5 prior to rocket ignition. This reduces the required rocket Delta-v to orbit to 20.7 kft/s.

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20700 ft/s is 6310 m/s - so indeed: 3000 m/s less than the usual 9300 m/s to go into Earth orbit.

We can reasonably assume that the basic rocket launching from the bizjet must be 9300 - 1100 = at least 8200 m/s worth of delta-v.

Now, take the same rocket, and add an Hermeus booster aircraft worth 3000 m/s by itself, total should be
8200+3000 = 11200 m/s.

GTO is LEO+2500 so 9300+2500 = 11800 m/s. Close, but no cigar...

I wouldn’t assume an 8,200 m/s delta-v for Ursa Major’s Hadley engine, especially if they advertise GEO on their website next to the engine. Seasoned folks are saying it will be the highest performing engine in its class.

The 9,300 m/s requirement is for rockets launched from a pad, right? That’s the 7,800 m/s orbit velocity plus atmospheric drag and gravity losses. I believe it is possible to lower thrust and fuel requirements by both high-altitude launch and by equatorial trajectory.

Quarterhorse would take off, fly to the Equator like Star Raker, take an eastward course, climb to a dynamic pressure altitude of 110,000 feet, and launch X-60 from at Mach 5.5, or 1,886 m/s, the rotation of the Earth having added 464 m/s. This is a launch velocity of 2,350 m/s.

The X-60 Hadley engine only needs to burn to around 5,000 m/s additional required for a LEO parking orbit at 200 km.

Then X-60 Hadley engine performs an additional burn to 2,500 m/s additional for a standard GTO injection and release the satellite.

The satellite will then burn an additional 1,000 m/s in order to circularize GEO.

According to my calculations, X-60 only needs to burn 7,500 m/s to send a satellite into GEO.

I've been trying to find out the current status of the X-60A program, but somehow couldn't find anything tangible from later than early 2020.

In January 2020, ground testing of the propulsion system was completed, apparently successfully, as reported by these two almost identical news items:
Air Force: X-60A program conducts integrated vehicle propulsion system verification test
SpaceWorks (GO's parent company): Generation Orbit Completes X-60A Integrated Vehicle Propulsion System Ground Test Campaign

I would have expected to find something about a first flight attempt, or the termination of the program. But no - nothing, nada, wherever I searched. Plain old googling, of course, but also SpaceWorks' news on their website, LinkedIn and X. The only related thing I found were two short blurbs on the SpaceWorks site about an "X-60C" (one of them strangely enough under the link "X-60B"):
https://dev.spaceworks.aero/flight/x-60b/

X-60C is a high-speed flight testbed for conducting research and development of future hypersonic systems. Hypersonics is the next great frontier of atmospheric flight, and GenOrbit’s experienced team of engineers and developers is helping the U.S. close the technology gap in this critical flight regime. One of the most challenging technical problems in the aerospace industry remains the development of vehicles capable of sustained hypersonic flight above Mach 5. While advances in computational fluid dynamics methods and ground test facilities have helped to advance technologies like scramjet engines, precision sensors, lightweight high temperature composite structures, and autonomous flight controls; flight research and testing programs such X-15, X-43, and X-51 are still the nation’s key tools for transitioning these technologies to operational systems.

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https://dev.spaceworks.aero/flight/x-60c/

X-60C is a new hypersonic flight vehicle designed to test large, complex payloads at relevant flight conditions. The X-60C builds upon the experienced gained under the X-60A program, while greatly expanding testing capabilities. This increased test capability will allow for rapid advancement of technologies needed to support future operational hypersonic flight systems. The X-60C is designed to support a wide range of test articles, which allows for a variety of use cases across the hypersonic test community.

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So, does anyone happen to know, what's going on? Did the X-60A fly? If so, when? If not, why not? It's not entirely uncommon, that such projects die a relatively silent death. But usually, you can find at least something, if you search long enough. Am I too dumb for googling ?

It presumably did fly, between 2020 and 2021.

From Former AFRL engineer earns 2021 Most Promising Engineer in Government Award:

CiTrus90 said:

It presumably did fly, between 2020 and 2021.

From Former AFRL engineer earns 2021 Most Promising Engineer in Government Award:
View attachment 718105

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Nice find. Still, it's a bit thin evidence for an actual flight, IMHO. The guy was assigned, among others, to "Project X-60A rocket flight test", but that doesn't necessarily mean, that this project actually achieved its objectives (i.e., flying the X-60A). Also, if the thing actually flew, I would definitely expect an easy-to-find press release about the event, either from the Air Force or the manufacturer, most likely both.

Andreas Parsch said:

[...] that doesn't necessarily mean, that this project actually achieved its objectives (i.e., flying the X-60A).

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Latest mention I could find of the program is this (quite cringy) post by the AFRL from March 2023:


I'm trying to look for contracts to SpaceWorks/Generation Orbit and flights of the aircraft that conducted the captive carry test to see if it has had an interesting schedule, but so far nothing else is coming up.

Also, if the thing actually flew, I would definitely expect an easy-to-find press release about the event, either from the Air Force or the manufacturer, most likely both.

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To be fair, I would not.
From what I've seen until today, information about every program dealing with hypersonics is quite tightly controlled. Since the X-60A is meant for testing things that might go onto other vehicles, there could be more than one reason to not approve for public release of information, not even for the first flight.
It's not like they are Lockheed Martin and have to report to their shareholders to keep them happy about their programs, their customer is the AFRL and as long as they are happy about it, everything is fine.
But I might be wrong.

CiTrus90 said:

To be fair, I would not.
From what I've seen until today, information about every program dealing with hypersonics is quite tightly controlled. Since the X-60A is meant for testing things that might go onto other vehicles, there could be more than one reason to not approve for public release of information, not even for the first flight.

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Good point. Also, thank you very much for your research efforts!

I finally found something . An article from Jane's, only available in the Internet Archive: AFRL delays first X-60A flight
Talks about a delay of the first flight from March 2020 to "later that year". No details are given.

And BTW, guess where I found the original link to that article - right here on the "Secret Projects" forum , deep inside a long (47 pages!) generic thread about US hypersonic weapons projects!

And to wrap this up(?): In the "Archives" section of the SpaceWorks site, X-60A and X-60C are listed under "Past Projects". So to me this looks like the X-60 is dead.