The experimental capabilities of the X2 hypersonic facility at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia are described. The facility can be operated as an expansion tube and the radiation generated in a steady flow over a test model can be studied. Alternatively, the facility can be operated as a shock tube where conditions suitable for radiation studies are created behind a shock wave propagating through a test gas. The facility is instrumented with two intensified camera systems capable of recording spectral information about the flow as well as a high speed camera for time dependent studies and a holographic interferometry system that can measure the flow density and, where present, electron concentrations. The operating envelope of the facility is described and sample experimental results from expansion tube mode operation are presented
