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28 September 2012
SpaceWorks Selects L-3 Coleman Aerospace to Assist with ALSET Project
SpaceWorks Selects L-3 Coleman Aerospace to Assist with ALSET Project
Atlanta, September 28, 2012 - SpaceWorks Engineering, a division of SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. (SEI), has selected L-3 Coleman Aerospace to assist with the facilitation of a series of air drop tests for the Japanese Air Launch System Enabling Technology (ALSET) project. SpaceWorks is providing US-based program management for the project in support of a Japanese team led by Japan Space Systems, and including IHI Aerospace Co., Ltd. (IA) and CSP Japan, Inc. (CSP-J).
The ALSET project is a Japanese government Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) funded project to examine air-launch orbital payload delivery systems and related technologies as a first step toward an operational commercial air launch system. The operational system is planned to involve air launch of a multi-stage solid rocket from an existing large carrier aircraft (C-130 class) for delivery of small payloads on the order of 100 to 200 kilograms to low earth orbit. The ALSET program seeks to demonstrate the technologies necessary for air launch as part of a Japanese civil space small air-launch vehicle technology development roadmap. ALSET culminates with a series of drop tests of an instrumented full-scale inert test article (an "iron bird” mass simulator) from the carrier aircraft at a test range in the United States.
L-3 Coleman Aerospace will work with SpaceWorks to assist the Japanese team with drop test preparations and is responsible for the design and integration of an instrumentation subsystem to collect engineering data during the drop tests. Coleman Aerospace has extensive experience with air drop programs, having served as a prime contractor for the single-stage Short Range Air Launch Target (SRALT), the two-stage Long Range Air Launch Target (LRALT), and the three-stage Enhanced Long Range Air Launch Target (E-LRALT). In addition to these live air launch programs, L-3 Coleman Aerospace designed, built, integrated, and supported air drop tests of the NASA Jumbo Drop Test Vehicle (JDTV).
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