NASA Terminates Space Plane Project Reuters 2001-03-02 08:15 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - NASA has terminated its experimental X-33 space plane project that had been envisioned as a lower-cost successor to the aging space shuttle fleet for missions into orbit, space agency officials have announced. The X-33 program was given the ax after five years of development that never even reached the point of a test flight. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said it spent $912 million on the project -- hoping to create an effective new-generation reusable spacecraft to transport people and cargo into space. X-33 designer Lockheed Martin Corp. spent $357 million, NASA said. NASA also said the X-34, another, smaller suborbital test vehicle, was being killed. NASA said it is in the process of ending its X-34 contract with Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Virginia. "This has been a very tough decision but we think it is the right business decision," Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, said in a statement on Thursday. "We have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from these X-programs, but one of the things we have learned is that our technology has not yet advanced to the point that we can successfully develop a new reusable launch vehicle that substantially improves safety, reliability and affordability," Stephenson added. The Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, managed the X-33 and X-34 programs for NASA. In November 1999, the X-33's composite liquid hydrogen fuel tank failed during testing, the space agency said. NASA said Lockheed Martin proposed to complete development of the space plane by replacing its two composite liquid hydrogen tanks with aluminum tanks. But NASA said the benefits of testing the X-33 in flight did not justify the cost. NASA began the X-33 program in 1996 as part of its Reusable Launch Vehicle program. The space agency said the program called for the demonstration of a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle -- one that would go from launch stand to orbit without using multiple stages as the Saturn moon rocket did or dropping rocket motors and fuel tank like the space shuttle. NASA said the X-33 program will end when the cooperative agreement between the space agency and Lockheed Martin expires on March 31 unless Lockheed Martin chooses to go forward with the program with its own funds. RTR/SCIENCE-SPACE-PLANE-DC/ John Keiner ist hoffnungsloser versklavt als derjenige, der irrtümlich glaubt frei zu sein. There are none more hopelessly enslaved then those who falsely believe they are free!
