International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / Development of an extended test range, with range instrumentation providing continuous vehicle communications, is required to flight-test the X-33, a scaled version of a reusable launch vehicle. The extended test range provides vehicle communications coverage from California to landing at Montana or Utah. This paper provides an overview of the approaches used to meet X-33 program requirements, including using multiple ground stations, and methods to reduce problems caused by reentry plasma radio frequency blackout. The advances used to develop the extended test range show other hypersonic and access-to-space programs can benefit from the development of the extended test range.

<p dir="ltr">This thesis discusses the use of a fiber optic system to synchronize GHz frequency radio-frequency signals over distances of up to 5 km and its future applications in quantum communications. The stability of the synchronization is assessed by an ‘identity gate’, where each radio-frequency signal drives a phase modulator, and the frequency profile of a continuous wave laser sent through both modulators indicates the stability of the RF signals relative to one another. Experimental results indicate that 19 GHz signals synchronized over 5.5 km drifted less than 1 ps over 30 minutes. This is superior to the radio-frequency synthesizers’ built in synchronization method and to other commonly used protocols. To illustrate an application, the system was employed in a quantum nonlocal modulation cancellation experiment. Joint spectral characterization of the biphotons shows that this synchronization scheme can be used for nodes in a quantum communications network. More specifically, possible future applications of this technology include use in a photonic quantum local area network at Oak Ridge National Laboratories.</p>