NASA News Release 97-250
October 31, 1997

Government and industry representatives today successfully completed a comprehensive design review of the X-33 technology demonstration program, giving the program a vote of confidence and the go ahead for fabrication of all remaining components, completion of subsystems and assembly of the subscale prototype launch vehicle.

"We've had an excellent review of the program, and we're ready to go ahead with all remaining fabrication and assembly for the X-33," said NASA X-33 program manager Gene Austin of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL.

The five-day operations and systems Critical Design Review (CDR) held this week at Edwards Air Force Base, CA, was the culmination of 51 subsystems and component CDRs held since January. Some 600 representatives from NASA, industry team lead Lockheed Martin, industry partners and the U.S. Air Force participated in this final design review of the X-33 Program. They planned the integration of the various systems and components into the operational vehicle, and finalized plans for the launch, landing and flight support infrastructure.

The review also served as an opportunity for program officials to announce resolution of issues that arose earlier this year regarding vehicle weight and aerodynamic stability and control. Since then the X-33 team's weight reduction efforts, modifications to the design of the vehicle's canted and vertical fins, and plans to use densified propellants to carry additional fuel have paved the way for a successful program, Austin said.

"I'm very pleased with the technical definition of the program," said Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-33program manager. "All the team members have done an outstanding job bringing together all the design elements of the program.

"We are now ready to focus on vehicle fabrication and launch site construction," Lacefield added. "We are on schedule for the flight demonstration program to begin in mid-1999."

The flagship vehicle in NASA's Space Transportation Technology Enterprise, the X-33 is a subscale prototype of a full-scale, commercially developed Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) which Lockheed Martin has named "VentureStarTM," planned for development after the turn of the century. A single-stage-to-orbit RLV could dramatically reduce the cost of putting payloads into space from $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound.

"Everything we have learned leading up to our Critical Design Review about the development of this prototype vehicle will be directly applied to the design of the full-scale vehicle," Austin said. "We've already earned the price of the X-33 program for what we've learned for the RLV."

The next major milestones for the more than $1 billion X-33Program are completion of the Environmental Impact Statement process, with the signing of the Record of Decision, and groundbreaking for the launch facility site on the eastern portion of Edwards Air Force Base, both planned for early November. The first arrival of a major vehicle component at the X-33 assembly facility in Palmdale, CA -- the aluminum liquid oxygen tank from Lockheed Martin Michoud in Louisiana -- is scheduled for January.

The X-33 is scheduled to make as many as 15 test flights beginning in July 1999. Launched vertically from Edwards, it will fly up to 15 times the speed of sound at altitudes approaching 60 miles. Planned landing sites are located at Dugway Proving Ground, UT, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, MT.

NOTE TO EDITORS: NASA and Lockheed Martin have scheduled a media teleconference with program officials to discuss the Critical Design Review beginning at 11 a.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 3. Gene Austin, NASA X-33 program manager; Jerry Rising, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works vice president X-33/RLV; and Cleon Lacefield, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works X-33 program manager, are scheduled to participate. Media wishing to participate should call 205/544-6903 and enter Conference Code # 1779 at the voice prompt.