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Simulated in-flight view of the X-33
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Function | Uncrewed re-usable spaceplane technology demonstrator |
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Manufacturer | Lockheed Martin |
Country of origin | United States |
Project cost | $922 million NASA + $357 million Lockheed Martin[1] |
Size | |
Height | 20 m (66 ft)[2] |
Mass | 129,000 kg (285,000 lb)[2] |
Stages | 1 |
Launch history | |
Status | Canceled |
Engine details | |
Powered by | 2XRS-2200 linear aerospikes[1] |
Maximum thrust | 1,800 kN (410,000 lbf)[1] |
Propellant | LOX/LH2 |
The Lockheed Martin X-33 was a proposed uncrewed, sub-scale technology demonstrator suborbital spaceplane that was developed for a period in the 1990s. The X-33 was a technology demonstrator for the VentureStar orbital spaceplane, which was planned to be a next-generation, commercially operated reusable launch vehicle. The X-33 would flight-test a range of technologies that NASA believed it needed for single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicles (SSTO RLVs), such as metallic thermal protection systems, composite cryogenic fuel tanks for liquid hydrogen, the aerospike engine, autonomous (uncrewed) flight control, rapid flight turn-around times through streamlined operations, and its lifting body aerodynamics.
Failures of its 21-meter wingspan and multi-lobed, composite-material fuel tank during pressure testing ultimately led to the withdrawal of federal support for the program in early 2001. Lockheed Martin has conducted unrelated testing, and has had a single success after a string of failures as recently as 2009 using a 2-meter scale model.[3]
In 1994 NASA initiated the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program. After a Phase I programme developing proposals from Rockwell International, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed Martin, a Phase II contract to develop the X-33 as a demonstrator vehicle was awarded to Lockheed Martin in 1996.[4] At the same time Orbital Sciences was awarded a contract to develop the X-34, an air-launched hypersonic research vehicle.[4]
The goals of the RLV program were:[4]
$1 billion was spent through 1999 with about 80 percent coming from NASA and additional money contributed by the industry partners.[4] The goal was to have a first flight by March 1999, and to have the VentureStar, the operational resusable space vehicle, flying in 2006.[4]
.. to build a vehicle that takes days, not months, to turn around; dozens, not thousands, of people to operate; with launch costs that are a tenth of what they are now. Our goal is a reusable launch vehicle that will cut the cost of getting a pound of payload to orbit from $10,000 to $1,000.
— D. Goldin NASA administrator on the RLV program[4]
There were three design proposals submitted for the X-33, and the L.M. version won and was further developed.[5] The Lockheed Martin proposal was chosen on July 2, 1996.[5] However, the X-33 program was cancelled in early 2001 after the project had problems with a carbon fiber composite hydrogen fuel tank.[6] The program was managed by the NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.[5]
Several years after it was cancelled the problems with hydrogen fuel tank were resolved by aerospace companies.[7]
Through the use of the lifting body shape, composite multi-lobed liquid fuel tanks, and the aerospike engine, NASA and Lockheed Martin hoped to test fly a craft that would demonstrate the viability of a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) design. A spacecraft capable of reaching orbit in a single stage would not require external fuel tanks or boosters to reach low Earth orbit. Doing away with the need for "staging" with launch vehicles, such as with the Shuttle and the Apollo rockets, would lead to an inherently more reliable and safer space launch vehicle. While the X-33 would not approach airplane-like safety, the X-33 would attempt to demonstrate 0.997 reliability, or 3 mishaps out of 1,000 launches, which would be an order of magnitude more reliable than the Space Shuttle. The 15 planned experimental X-33 flights could only begin this statistical evaluation.
The uncrewed craft would have been launched vertically from a specially designed facility constructed on Edwards Air Force Base,[8] and landed horizontally (VTHL) on a runway at the end of its mission. Initial sub-orbital test flights were planned from Edwards AFB to Dugway Proving Grounds southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Once those test flights were completed, further flight tests were to be conducted from Edwards AFB to Malmstrom AFBinGreat Falls, Montana, to gather more complete data on aircraft heating and engine performance at higher speeds and altitudes.[citation needed]
On July 2, 1996, NASA selected Lockheed Martin Skunk WorksofPalmdale, California, to design, build, and test the X-33 experimental vehicle for the RLV program. Lockheed Martin's design concept for the X-33 was selected over competing concepts from Rockwell International and McDonnell Douglas. Rockwell proposed a Space Shuttle-derived design, and McDonnell Douglas proposed a design based on its vertical takeoff and landing (VTVL) DC-XA test vehicle.[citation needed]
The uncrewed X-33 was slated to fly 15 suborbital hops to near 75.8 km altitude.[9] It was to be launched upright like a rocket and rather than having a straight flight path it would fly diagonally up for half the flight, reaching extremely high altitudes, and then for the rest of the flight glide back down to a runway.
The X-33 was never intended to fly higher than an altitude of 100 km, nor faster than one-half of orbital velocity. Had any successful tests occurred, extrapolation would have been necessary to apply the results to a proposed orbital vehicle.[9]
The decision to design and build the X-33 grew out of an internal NASA study titled "Access to Space".[10] Unlike other space transport studies, "Access to Space" was to result in the design and construction of a vehicle.
Based on the X-33 experience shared with NASA, Lockheed Martin hoped to make the business case for a full-scale SSTO RLV, called VentureStar, that would be developed and operated through commercial means. The intention was that rather than operate space transport systems as it has with the Space Shuttle, NASA would instead look to private industry to operate the reusable launch vehicle and NASA would purchase launch services from the commercial launch provider. Thus, the X-33 was not only about honing space flight technologies, but also about successfully demonstrating the technology required to make a commercial reusable launch vehicle possible.[citation needed]
The VentureStar was to be the first commercial aircraft to fly into space. The VentureStar was intended for long inter-continental flights and supposed to be in service by 2012, but this project was never funded or begun.[citation needed]
General characteristics
Performance
After the cancellation in 2001, engineers were able to make a working liquid-oxygen tank from carbon-fiber composite.[11] Tests showed that composites were feasible materials for liquid-oxygen tanks[12]
On September 7, 2004, Northrop Grumman and NASA engineers unveiled a liquid-hydrogen tank made of carbon-fiber composite material that had demonstrated the ability for repeated fuelings and simulated launch cycles.[7] Northrop Grumman concluded that these successful tests have enabled the development and refinement of new manufacturing processes that will allow the company to build large composite tanks without an autoclave; and design and engineering development of conformal fuel tanks appropriate for use on a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle.[13]
Five companies expressed interest and proposed concepts. Of those five Lockheed Martin, Rockwell and McDonnell Douglas were selected for workup into more detailed proposals.[14]
Rockwell proposed a Space Shuttle-derived design.[15] It would have used one Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME) and two RL-10-5A engines.[16]: 49
In a subsequent full-scale system to reach orbit Rockwell planned to use six Rocketdyne RS-2100 engines.[16]: 49
McDonnell Douglas featured a design using liquid oxygen/hydrogen bell engines based on its vertical takeoff and landing DC-XA test vehicle.[6] It would have used a single SSME for the main propulsion system.[16]: 47 [17]
Flight tests would involve speeds of up to Mach 15 and altitudes up to approximately 75,800 meters... The test program was baselined for a combined total of 15 flights.
Lockheed and Lockheed Martin aircraft and spacecraft
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USAF / Joint Service experimental aircraft (X-plane) designations since 1941
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Supersonic/special test "S" (1946–1947) |
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Experimental "X" (1948–present) |
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See also |
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1 Not assigned • 2 Assigned to multiple types • 3 Unofficial |
U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) spacecraft and air vehicles
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Launch/orbital vehicles |
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University Nanosat Program |
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Space weather satellites |
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Technology demonstrators |
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Tactical Satellite Program satellites |
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