The
original goal of the X-33 program was to reduce the business and technical risks
by the end of the decade (that is, by the year 2000) so that private industry could
build and operate the next generation reusable launch vehicle. The flagship vehicle
in NASA's Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program, the X-33 initially was intended
to pave the way for a full-scale, commercially-developed RLV to be built by Lockheed
Martin after the turn of the century. The full-scale RLV would reduce dramatically
the cost of putting payloads into space.
The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works design
for the X-33 was selected from
three proposed designs submitted
to NASA at the end of Phase I of the program.
The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works
X-33 concept used a lifting body shape coupled with an aerospike rocket engine to
propel the vehicle.
The X-33 was designed to simulate the ascent and re-entry environments
of the full-scale RLV. It was scheduled to make as many as fifteen flights beginning
in June 1999 [subsequently postponed indefinitely]. Launched vertically from Haystack
Butte, near Edwards Air Force Base, California, the X-33 was intended to fly over 13 times the
speed of sound (Mach 13) at altitudes approaching 50 miles. The actual speed and
altitude of the X-33 vehicle probably would not have been reduced by the heavier aluminum-lithium
tanks that will replace the failed composite liquid hydrogen fuel tanks. Announced
landing sites are located in Utah and Montana.
