A procedure is developed of the diagnostics of supersonic flows of nonequilibrium rarefied plasma. It is experimentally confirmed that the application of pressure probes and Langmuir probes makes it possible to determine almost the entire complex of basic kinetic parameters of nonequilibrium rarefied plasma.

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A procedure is developed and formulas are obtained for processing and analyzing output signals of neutral particle detectors (pressure probe) and current-voltage characteristics of a single cylindrical Lang muir probe, when high speed nonequilibrium rarefied plasma flows are diagnosed on board a spacecraft in the ionosphere and on a test bench. The results are supported by experimental data. The procedure is intended to evaluate values of a set of basic kinetic parameters of neutral and charged particles of partially ion ized rarefied gas flows.