A family of electronically steered circular phased array antennas are configured for use on spinning re-entry vehicles (RV). This technique allows RVs from six inches to ten feet diameter to achieve greatly increased performance compared to present systems: continuous range safety achieved throughout RV flight; significantly higher data rates from improved data monitoring; required spatial coverage with simple beam-pointing mechanisms. A novel rf computation circuit allows a low sidelobe radiation pattern to be generated and de-spun such that the array high gain beam is always pointing at a data collection station. This technique, proven on the Navy's Aegis IFF system, is adapted for enhancement of RV flight tests. Also considered is the utilization of TDRs as the data collectionstationinordertoprovidecontinuousline-of-sight communication with the RV. Suitability of circular phased arrays to enhance the data collection from the planned national aerospace plane (NASP) and the hypersonic glide vehicle (HGV) is assessed.
