IXV post-flight reconstruction and analysis of the aerothermodynamic measurements along the rarefied portion of the reentry trajectory

Following the reentry of Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle in 2015, a lot efforts were carried out at ONERA for post-flight analysis and reconstruction heat flux applied to vehicle. This flight represents unique means validation computational tools employed design such mission. The aim this paper is exploit first time these data rarefied portion vehicle’s reentry. In context, DSMC simulations performed between 115 90 km CFD computation was made point. standard numerical conditions, different degrees agreement are obtained sensitivity various atmospheric parameters provides several ways significantly improve results. addition, comparison good surface quantities suggestions reach better level consistency both methods finally discussed.