CHAIRMAN ROHRABACHER'S STATEMENT ON X-33 HYDROGEN TANK DAMAGE

WASHINGTON - I was saddened to hear last week that one of the X-33's two composite liquid hydrogen tanks suffered damage during testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center . The X-33 program is and always has been very technically challenging, and I sincerely hope that this problem can be solved quickly and affordably enough to enable a successful flight test program.

Unfortunately, I am less hopeful about NASA's space transportation development efforts overall. Five years ago President Clinton transferred authority for developing reusable launch vehicle technology from the Department of Defense to NASA, despite bipartisan skepticism in Congress. Since then we have appropriated well over a billion dollars - more than the President has requested - to support these activities. But NASA's record of success has been poor by any measure:

the DC-XA suffered a failure on landing, largely because NASA used all of its resources to add advanced technologies to the DC-X experimental test-bed rather than improving the operability of the test-bed itself;

NASA's X-34 program was canceled, restructured, and is now delayed by problems with the NASA-provided rocket engine and bureaucratic infighting over flight testing;

rather than adopting the DoD's "build a little, test a little" philosophy, NASA put all of its technology eggs into a single X-33 basket;

Congressional warnings - that NASA should fund competing designs, backup vehicles, or even significant spare parts for the X-33 - went unheeded;

the first Future-X "pathfinder", the X-37, is already behind schedule;

while several commercial spaceplane companies are struggling to develop systems that could slash some of NASA's launch costs in the near future, NASA has lobbied to fund third-generation "Spaceliner 100" technologies that won't lead to operational RLVs for at least 25 years; and,

NASA has just spent $25 million in Space Transportation Architecture Studies only to decide that it needs to spend billions more on space transportation technology over the next five years so that in 2005 it can decide how to replace the Shuttle, a decision NASA was supposed to make by the year 2000.

At the same time, improving America's space transportation competitiveness is more important than ever. Earlier this year the Select Committee chaired by Congressmen Chris Cox and Norm Dicks recommended strong action on this issue. And countless witnesses before the House Science Committee have stressed the importance of reducing the high cost of access to space as the critical enabler for both space commerce and more effective military use of space.

Today we do not know the full impact of the tank failure on the X-33 project. But it is abundantly clear that our federal space transportation development efforts must be significantly restructured. When the 106th Congress returns for its second session, I will work closely with my colleagues from both parties in the House and Senate to pursue whatever bold ideas, painful reforms, and effective investments may be required to achieve our goals for American leadership in space transportation.