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Nose Cone, Ablative Test

Display Status:
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum, it is either on loan or in storage.

Nose Cone, Ablative Test

 

  • Summary

Country of Origin: United States of America

Dimensions:
Other: 2ft 7in. high x 7 1/2in. in diameter at base (78.74 x 19.05cm)

Materials:
Carbon phenolic ablative material, aluminum. Plexiglass and wood case.

This is a cutaway of a flown nose cone that NASA's Langley Research Center used in the 1960s in one of its flight tests of various ablative (heat-shielding) materials. The four-stage Pacemaker vehicle launched it from Wallops Island. The nose cones generally flew to altitudes no greater than 100,000 feet and were recovered from the ocean downrange for analysis. The ablative material in the tip and forward section is carbon-phenolic and low density nylon, pyrrone foam, low density purple blend, and low density phenolic nylon in the cylindrical section. The manufacturer is not known. The Langley Research Center transferred the nose cone to the Museum in 1979.

Transferred from NASA, Langley Research Center.


Inventory number: A19791309000