HEDGE-2: Hypersonic Reentry Deployable Glider Experiment 2; X-15 3-65: A Look Into a Network’s Moral Obligations 4 views

Sociotechnical Synthesis: Innovations in Hypersonic Flight Experiments My STS research and technical project are connected through their relation to the development of experimental flights within the hypersonic flight regime, five times or greater than the speed of sound. The X-15 program was the beginning of an era of hypersonic flight for the United States (NASA, 2014). Its main purpose as a flight program was to collect data on hypersonic environments to design more effective and stable hypersonic vehicles. Since the end of this program, new efforts from the government and private companies have been made to develop better hypersonic vehicles. My technical project, the Hypersonic ReEntry Deployable Glider Experiment 2 (HEDGE-2), not only relates to this but also continues the effort started by the X-15 program. HEDGE-2 seeks to continue learning more about hypersonic environments on a smaller, more affordable scale using CubeSat technology. Rather than having its own propulsion system, HEDGE-2 will be launched off one of NASA’s sounding rockets, RockSAT, in June 2026. This significantly reduces the cost of the experiment and allows for the vehicle to reach hypersonic speeds as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere. HEDGE-2 has many subsystems that come together to make up the deployer and the deployable. Structural and electronic systems and parts were designed and manufactured by the structures, avionics, and aerodynamics teams. My team’s goal will have been achieved when we successfully receive telemetry signals from HEDGE-2 as it reenters our atmosphere this June. For my STS research paper, I employed Callon’s Actor Network Theory (ANT) and van de Poel’s moral responsibility, risk communication, and risk assessment to analyze Major Michael J. Adam’s crash and death in the X-15 program. ANT views engineering projects as heterogeneous networks of human and nonhuman actors brought together by network builders to solve a problem (Cressman, 2009). This can be paired with van de Poel’s principles that emphasize one’s duty to mitigate and communicate risks to highlight the nontechnical causes of Major Adam’s crash (van de Poel & Royakkers, 2011). It was concluded that NASA, as a network builder, did not properly translate its goal into a network through a lack of adherence to the precautionary principle and risk communication. My paper aims to highlight the underlying causes of the technical failures during the flight that previous papers seemed to overlook. As I continue to work on a hypersonic flight vehicle throughout my fourth year at UVA, I feel very grateful to have examined the X-15 program so closely. In terms of the case of Major Adams, it opened my eyes to the consequences of my work. While my current technical project doesn’t involve pilots on the rocket or on HEDGE, working on my STS research paper humanized the field beyond technical terms. This showed me how much more important it is for me to continuously check my work, communicate, and mitigate the chance of risk in any project I work on.

BS (Bachelor of Science)

Hypersonics; CubeSat; NASA; X-15 Program

School of Engineering and Applied Science Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technical Advisor: Hannah Soberman STS Advisor: Benjamin Laugelli Technical Team Members: Elizabeth Armstrong, Olivia Sauber, Gaby Flores, Zachary Davis, Rishika Deshmukh, Saba Niknam, Nand Patel, Humza Rubel, Tristan Scott, Logan Tolbert, Edison Wong, Christian Wright

English

2026-05-08