Airborne Systems

The Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator was launched on 12 October 1998 on Ariane 503, the third Ariane-5 qualification flight.

The ARD performed a sub-orbital flight with a maximum altitude of 830 km, and landed in the Pacific Ocean. ASNA designed and built the mortar system, pilot parachute, drogue parachute and the main parachute cluster which flew on the mission. The terminal descent parachutes were a modified version of the 75 ft polyconical parachutes that were designed by ASNA for the Atlas booster recovery system demonstration.