Orbiter Entry Aerodynamics Flight Testing: STS-119 and STS-125

NASA has performed entry flight testing related to boundary layer transition and turbulent heating environments during 2009. Two projects are involved in implementing the activities and acquiring flight data: 1) Orbiter BLT Flight Experiment during STS-119; and 2) Hypersonic Thermodynamic Infrared Measurements (HYTHIRM) during STS-119 and STS-125. Orbiter BLT FE has implemented tile surface thermocouples in order to provide in-situ data downstream of a fixed geometry tile protuberance. HYTHIRM has developed a framework of mission planning and aircraft based telescopic infrared measurements to provide quantitative surface temperature distributions.