NASA Note to Editors 00-060
December 8, 2000

Program managers for the project designed to propel the X-33 into high-speed, suborbital flight will meet with reporters next week to discuss tandem test-firings of the linear Aerospike, NASA's radical new rocket engine.

The briefing is set for 11 a.m. EST, Wednesday, Dec. 13, at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.

Early next year will see the first of at least nine tests of two clustered Aerospikes mounted together on a rocket stand.

Participants in the one-hour news conference are expected to be:

• Gene Austin, NASA X-33 Program Manager, Marshall

• Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Vice President for X-33, Palmdale, CA

• Don Chenevert, NASA X-33 Program Manager, Aerospike Engine Testing, Stennis Space Center, MS

• Mike McKeon, X-33 Aerospike Engine Program Manager, Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power, The Boeing Company, Canoga Park, CA

What makes the linear Aerospike engine unique is the shape of its nozzle. Unlike conventional rocket engines that use a bell nozzle to constrict and direct expanding gases, the linear Aerospike nozzle is V-shaped and called a ramp.

NASA Centers will provide two-way question-and-answer capability though NASA Television for accredited news media. NASA TV is on GE-2, transponder 9C, located at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency will be on 3880.0 MHz, with audio on 6.8 MHz.