The Sharp Edge Flight Experiment SHEFEX 1 - A Mission Overview

High costs and an unsatisfactory technological readiness level for components are the two main limiting parameters to design and fly new generation space vehicles. Since the thermal protection system (TPS) is one of the cost driving factors, German Aerospace Center (DLR) started a new cost effective hypersonic flight experiment program SHEFEX, which is based on a facetted TPS concept. It should reduce the design and manufacturing costs drastically and simultaneously improve the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle. Furthermore this experiment should provide flight data for the validation of multidisciplinary design tools for space vehicles. This paper describes the complete SHEFEX I mission with a main focus on the payload instrumentation and in-flight data.