The first Dropped Transonic Flight Test of USV (Unmanned Space Vehicles), performed with Castor, the first of the two spacecrafts developed within the USV Program, was performed on Saturday 24th February 2007, from Tortoli Airport in Sardinia. At 8:30 a.m. the 340000 cubic meters stratospheric balloon lifted off from the East coast of Sardinia, bringing the Flying Test Bed up to 20.2 km before release within the isolated sea polygon controlled by Italian Air Force Fire Test Range in Salto di Quirra (PISQ). The mission ended at 10:30 a.m. with the splash-down of the space vehicle. The flight itself was very good, with a nose-up manoeuvre under transonic conditions, reaching a maximum Mach as high as 1.08. The mission target was completely achieved as some 2 million measures were taken related to flight data, housekeeping, as well as 500 aerodynamic and structural experimental sensors. Unfortunately, the vehicle has been damaged more than expected during splash down. Many national and international institutions and industries contributed to the mission carrying out, under the supervision and technical guide of CIRA: Italian Space Agency, Italian Air Force, Italian Navy, Italian Civil Aviation Authority, Italian Company for Air Navigation Services, Port Authorities, European Space Agency, Techno System Dev., Vitrociset, Carlo Gavazzi Space, Space Software Italia, Alcatel Alenia Space Italy, ISL-Altran Group). The paper reports the actual status of post-flight data analysis.
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