APPLICATION STATUS OF C/C COMPOSITES FOR THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEM IN RE-ENTRY SPACECRAFT

Mainly three types of C/C materials are associated with the hypersonic flight vehicle development: (1) Reinforced C/C, which emphasis on multiple mission lifetime capability (100 times) under thermal cycles from subzero to 1538 degrees C for the application of Space Shuttle Orbiter; (2) Advanced C/C for the new generation Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) for the temperature capacity of around 1650 degrees C; (3) refractory C/C for a nominal 1950 degrees C temperature regime used for hypersonic flight vehicles, such as HTV-2. In this paper, fabrication process of these C/C materials is presented. Following is a discussion of the properties of these C/C materials, showing their capacity to meet the requirement of hypersonic flight vehicles.