First Major X-33 Component Arrives
he first major flight
component for the next generation of NASA's reusable launch vehicles arrived
in Palmdale, California, in March, marking the start of an assembly schedule
at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works vehicle assembly facility to ready
the X-33 for flight in 18 months. The wedge-shaped X-33 is a subscale
prototype technology demonstrator leading to the next generation of commercially
developed and operated single-stage-to-orbit vehicles flying after the
turn of the century, which could dramatically reduce the cost of putting
payloads into space. The 26-foot-long, 5,500-pound aluminum liquid oxygen
tank that will form much of the nose and forward third of the X-33 vehicle
arrived by air from the Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems facility
in New Orleans. "The arrival of the liquid oxygen tank marks the
start of an ambitious assembly schedule that will see the X-33 vehicle
roll out and begin flight tests within 18 months," Jerry Rising,
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works vice president for X-33/VentureStar, said.
"This is a significant achievement in making the X-33 vehicle ready
for flight, as the liquid oxygen tank is the first major element to be
placed into the assembly fixture," added Gene Austin, NASA X-33 program
manager.
The tank, designed to hold more than 181,000 pounds of liquid oxygen, will supply the oxidizer needed to burn the vehicle's fuel, liquid hydrogen. The liquid oxygen tank also plays a key structural role in the X-33. It has a complex, two-lobed structure allowing for a close fit within the vehicle's outer shell. When filled, the tank will account for about 65 percent of total vehicle weight at liftoff.
The liquid oxygen tank design is one of a number of challenging technology areas that are key to the X-33, including the vehicle's two cutting-edge composite liquid hydrogen tanks, two linear aerospike engines, the vehicle's rugged metallic thermal protection system and advanced avionics systems, all of which will be arriving at the Palmdale facility during the coming year. Vehicle assembly is scheduled to be completed in the late spring of 1999, with the first flight, to be launched from Edwards Air Force Base, California, scheduled for July 1999.
For more information, contact Don Amatore at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Call (256) 544-0031, Fax: (256) 544-3854,
E-mail: don.amatore@msfc.nasa.gov
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