Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator

The Atmospheric Reentry Demonstrator ( ARD) is an unmanned spacecraft, which was created as a study in the development of a European team capsule for transport to the International Space Station ( ISS). It is similar in appearance to an Apollo Command Module.

The capsule was manufactured by Aérospatiale, is 2.4 m high and has a diameter of 2.8 m. These are 50 percent of the measurements that will later have the atmospheric reentry demonstrator astronauts capsule. Her appearance is made of aluminum. The heat shield, which consists of Aleastrasil is located on the broad base of the capsule. The flight control system and the electrical system is based on technology developed for the Ariane 5. The attitude control system with seven Hydrazindüsen comes from the German DASA. It is used to align the capsule with the heat shield before entering the atmosphere.

The first and only start ARD was a suborbital test flight. He was on 21 October 1998 from the Guiana Space Centre in Kourou by an Ariane 5

At an altitude of 216 km the ARD separated twelve minutes after the start of the launch vehicle and continued to rise to a maximum height of 830 km. During the flight, about 200 technical parameters were collected and sent to the ground station. During re-entry occurred on the heat shield to temperatures of up to 900 ° C, but the interior of the landing capsule remained anytime airtight and intact. 101 minutes after the start splashed ARD 4.9 km from the intended target point in the Pacific between the Marquesas and Hawaii. Five hours later, the capsule was recovered and brought to Europe for further study. The ARD had fulfilled all the requirements.

The ARD is now on display at the Cité de l' espace in Toulouse.

A follow-up project of the ARD is the IXV that is to start with the Vega launcher for the first time.