The Pegasus avionics system design

Abstract

The Pegasus air-launched space booster successfully completed its maiden flight on April 5, 1990. Many recent advances in digital avionics and computer technology simplified the vehicle and its testing. The single-string Pegasus avionics comprise multiple microcontroller-based remote units for controlling actuators, firing thrusters and pyrotechnics, and gathering telemetry arranged in a serial digital star network centered on the VMEBUS flight computer. Flight, aircraft, and test software is in C, with small amounts of FORTH and assembly language. A series of laboratory, simulation, mobile test bed, motor static firing, and captive flight tests verified that the avionics system was ready for free flight.<>