2024 Volume 2 Article ID: 141
The S-520 Japanese sounding rocket has recently begun to be utilized as a Flying Test Bed (FTB) for investigating Flight Test Models (FTMs). The FTM contains fuel and avionics and thus requires a Ground Air-Conditioning System (GACS). The GACS has two roles. One is to maintain the inert gas atmosphere inside the FTM, which prevents combustion in case of fuel leak. The other is to keep the inside of the FTM at a temperature suitable for its avionics by supplying cold gas. The GACS was developed for the S-520-RD1 sounding rocket, which is used in supersonic combustion flight testing. The GACS consists of five sections: a gas source, heat exchanger, flow path switching system, rotation arm, and vacuum connector. The GACS was successfully operated throughout S-520-RD1 launch schedule. FTM Internal atmosphere kept perfectly inert and met avionics cooling requirement. The vacuum connector was correctly separated from the FTM by remote vacuum breaking and the motion of the rotation arm during the vacuum connector separation phase just before launch. In short, the operation was completed successfully.
