Flight Hardware Highlights
MR&D’s primary flight hardware activities include:
- Design of the Carbon-Carbon nose leading edges for the X-43A
- Design and fabrication of a CMC blast heat shield for the AV-8B Harrier aircraft
- Design support to ATK for the Chemical Vapor Infiltrated C/SiC Plug Repair for Space Shuttle Reinforced Carbon-Carbon Wing Leading Edges
- Design of Carbon-Carbon radiator panels for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Earth Orbiting Satellite (EOS-1)
- Design of high thermal conductivity organic matrix composite thermal doublers for the Lockheed-Martin Traveling Wave Tube Arrays for the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
- Design of high thermal conductivity organic matrix composite PCI-format thermal planes for the Lockheed Martin Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
C-C nose leading edges for X-43A
- Fabric preform woven by Textile Technologies, Inc. per MR&D fabric specification
- C-C composite and layered HfC and SiC coating fabricated by MER
CMC Blast heat shield for AV-8B Harrier aircraft
CVI C/SiC Plug Repair for Space Shuttle RCC WLE
- Subcontractor to ATK Thiokol
- 0/60/-60 3000oF heat treated T-300 1k fiber in CVI SiC matrix
- C/SiC composite manufactured by GE CCP, Newark, DE
Other Flight Article Designs
| EOS-1 C-C Radiator | MRO TWTA Thermal Doubler | MRO PCI-format thermal plane | |
| Composite Material | P30X/CVI Carbon | Pitch fiber/cyanate esther resin | Pitch fiber/cyanate esther resin |
| Size |
36" x 36" | 9" x 18" | 6" x 4" |
| Fabricator | BFGoodrich | Material Innovations, Inc. | Lockheed Martin Astronautics |
| Design Date | 1994 | 2003 | 2002 |
| Launch Date | 1996 | September 2005 | September 2005 |
| Quantity | 1 | 3 | 40 |