NASA News Release 97-46
November 14, 1997

The 25-acre launch site is located on the eastern portion of Edwards, a few hundred yards north of what is known as Haystack Butte. The beginning of construction for X-33 launch facilities marks another major milestone for the program -- milestones which have included, during the last two weeks, the successful completion of a critical design review for the vehicle and closing out of the environmental impact statement process for X-33. All 15 planned test flights of the X-33 will be launched from the Edwards facility beginning in July 1999. Landing sites are Michael Army Air Field at Dugway Proving Ground, UT, and Malmstrom Air Force Base, MT.

Approximately 100 workers will construct the $30 million launch facility, with work scheduled to be completed in a year. Sverdrup Corp., St. Louis, MO, is overseeing construction of the facility.

Site plans include a retractable vehicle shelter; a rotating vehicle launch mount; storage areas for the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen used for fuel, and helium and liquid nitrogen used in vehicle operations; a water storage tank for the sound suppression system; a concrete flame trench; and assorted site infrastructure. The vehicle's operations control center will be located in an existing test control room within Haystack Butte.

NASA and the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works are conducting the X-33 program under a cooperative agreement. The X-33 is a subscale technology demonstration prototype of a commercial Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) Lockheed Martin has labeled "VentureStar (tm)," which the company hopes to develop early in the next century. Through development and demonstration flights, the X-33 will provide the information needed for industry to decide by the year 2000 whether to proceed with the development of a full-scale, commercial RLV program.

A full-scale, single-stage-to-orbit RLV could dramatically increase reliability and lower the cost of putting a pound of payload into space from $10,000 to $1,000. By reducing the cost associated with transporting payloads into Low Earth Orbit, a commercial RLV would create new opportunities for space access and significantly improve U.S. economic competitiveness in the worldwide launch marketplace. NASA will be a customer on, not the operator of, an industry-developed RLV