Hyflex was a NASDA

National Space Development Agency of Japan

of Japan, or NASDA, was a Japanese national space agency established on October 1, 1969 under the National Space Development Agency Law only for peaceful purposes...

 reentry demonstrator prototype which was launched in 1996 on the only flight of the J-I

J-I

The J-I was a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency solid rocket expendable launch vehicle. It flew only once, in 1996, in a partial configuration, to launch the demonstrator Hyflex...

 launcher. It was a successor of OREX

OREX

OREX was a NASDA reentry demonstrator prototype which was launched in 1994 on the H-II launcher. It was a precursor for the Japanese space Shuttle Hope....

and was a precursor for the Japanese space Shuttle Hope

HOPE-X

HOPE was a Japanese experimental spaceplane project designed by a partnership between NASDA and NAL , started in the 1980s. It was positioned for most of its lifetime as one of the main Japanese contributions to the International Space Station, the other being the Japanese Experiment Module...

.

Hyflex tested the carbon-carbon heat shielding tiles that were intended to be used on HOPE, as well as having the same body shaping in order to gather data on hypersonic lifting. Hyflex flew in space at 110 km altitude and succeeded in re-entry, but sank in the Pacific after splashdown before it could be recovered.

External links

• Description of Hyflex on NASDA web page