DOI: 10.13009/EUCASS2019-644 8TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE FOR AERONAUTICS AND SPACE SCIENCES (EUCASS) Aerodynamic Design of a Reusable Booster Stage Flight Experiment Clemens Merrem*, Daniel Kiehn**, Viola Wartemann+ and Thino Eggers++ * German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig Germany,
[email protected] ** German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Flight Systems, Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig Germany,
[email protected] +German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig Germany,
[email protected] ++German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, Lilienthalplatz 7 38108 Braunschweig Germany,
[email protected] Abstract The German Aerospace Center is currently developing a flight experiment as a technology demonstrator for a reusable, horizontally landing booster stage, the Reusable Flight Experiment (ReFEx). The static and dynamic aerodynamic properties of the final shape of this 2.7 m long vehicle are presented in this paper. A two-staged VSB-30 sounding rocket transports ReFEx to an altitude of about 130 km. After the separation from the carrier rocket, an autonomous re-entry is performed with a maximum Mach number of approx. 5. The test flight of ReFEx is scheduled for 2022. Abbreviations 6DoF Six degrees of freedom CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics ESA European Space Agency DLR Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (German Aerospace Center) DoF Degree(s)