Launch Vehicle Aerodynamic Data Base Development Comparison With Flight Data

The aerodynamic development plan for the Space Shuttle integrated vehicle had three major objectives. The first objective was to support the evolution of the basic configuration by establishing aerodynamic impacts to various candidate configurations. The second objective was to provide continuing evaluation of the basic aerodynamic characteristics in order to bring about a mature data base. The third task was development of the element and component aerodynamic characteristics and distributed air loads data to support structural loads analyses. The complexity of the configurations rendered conventional analytic methods of little use and therefore required extensive wind tunnel testing of detailed complex models. However, the ground testing and analyses did not predict the aerodynamic characteristics that were extracted from the Space Shuttle flight test program. Future programs that involve the use of vehicles similar to the Space Shuttle should be concerned with the complex flow fields characteristics of these types of complex configurations.