On July 2, 1996, NASA selected Lockheed Martin to design, build, and fly the X-33 Advanced Technology Demonstrator test vehicle. The X-33, a half-scale vehicle, was to have featured a lifting-body shape, a new "aerospike" rocket engine, and a rugged metallic thermal protection system. It was expected to demonstrate in flight the new technologies needed for a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV).

The X-33 was to have been an unpiloted vehicle, launched vertically like a rocket but landed horizontally like an airplane, and was expected to be capable of reaching an altitude of approximately 50 miles and speeds of more than Mach 11. A full-scale RLV, which Lockheed Martin named VentureStar (a trade name registered to the company) was to have increased reliability dramatically and lowered the cost of putting a pound of payload into space from the current figure of $10,000 to $1,000. Due to technical problems, the X-33 program was cancelled in early 2001, before a flight could be made.

Dryden Home > Collections > Movies Home > X-33